After a noticeable deceleration in gold purchases for international reserves in April, global central banks added 20 net tons in May. The Polish Central Bank continues to stand out month by month.
According to the latest surveys of the London Metal Market, the data of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the world’s own monetary entities, last May, last May The central banks accelerated, moderately, gold purchases by adding 20 net tons to world reserves. In this way, in the first five months of the year, the world’s central banks incorporated some 91 net tons to international gold reserves.
May purchases are the second largest registration of 2025 behind February when 24 tons were bought, but remain below the average of 12 months of 27 tons. In May, it was the Kazakstan National Bank that led the purchases of the month with 7 tons, followed by Türkiye and Poland each with 6 -ton net purchaseswhile the monetary authority of Singapore (MAS) reported sales of 5 tons during the same period.
For experts in the world gold market, new tensions in the Middle East may have reinforced the strategic attractiveness of gold for central banks that seek to safeguard reserves against geopolitical clashes. The last polls between central bankers reflect that gold remains a focus of attention for central banks worldwide, who believe, almost an absolute majority, that official gold reserves will continue to increase.
Gold: Who bought in May?
The central banks that reported changes of 1 ton or more in their gold reserves were:
- The Kazakhstan National Bank (NBK) reported having added 7 tons of gold to its reserves in May, raising them to 299 tons. Since the beginning of the year, NBK’s gold reserves have increased by 15 tons.
- The Central Bank of Türkiye reported purchases of 6 tons of gold this month, raising its accumulation of gold so far to 15 tons.
- The National Bank of Poland (NBP) also increased 6 tons of gold to its reserves, and remains the largest net buyer of gold in 2025, adding 67 tons.
- The Popular Bank of China and the Czech National Bank increased 2 tons of gold respectively, followed by three other central banks that added 1 ton of gold each: the National Bank of the Kyrgyse Republic, the National Bank of Cambodia, the Central Bank of the Philippines and the Bank of Ghana.
For its part, the Singapore monetary authority led the May sales with 5 tons, followed by the Central Bank of the Republic of Uzbekistan and Deutsche Bundesbank, which sold 1 ton of gold each.
So far this year, Uzbekistan remains the largest net seller with 27 tons, followed by Singapore with 10 tons. In addition, the updated data last April also showed that the Central Bank of Qatar bought 2 tons of gold, which raised the global net purchases of that month to 16 tons. While among the main buyers behind Poland, Azerbaijan stands out via the State Petroleum Fund (Sofaz), China, Türkiye and Kazakhstan.
It is worth remembering that, last April, world central banks bought a net total of 12 tons, the lowest record of the year and below the average of 12 months of 28 tons. At that time the analysts wondered what could be behind the decrease in monthly purchases, and considered that it could be due, in part, to the rapid appreciation of the price of gold since the beginning of the year that deterred from buying to the rhythm that had been seeing months ago.
As for the perspectives, the central banks continue to maintain favorable expectations about gold as the latest global polls show it where almost half of the central bankers said that it would increase their gold reserves and almost the majority said it would do so in the next 12 months. The main arguments used to decide continuing with gold purchases were the qualities of precious metal as diversifier and protector during crises and inflation.
Source: Ambito
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