The Reserve Bank of India purchased 52.3 tonnes gold in FY19 to augment its foreign exchange reserves, according to the latest data released on Tuesday by the World Gold Council. With this, it has entered league of world's top-10 gold holding central banks. RBI currently holds 612.6 tonnes of the metal as part of its foreign exchange reserves. Till about a month ago, the central bank was ranked 11th, but in March it added 3.7 tonnes of gold to its forex reserves and dislodged the Netherlands from the 10th spot.
The World Gold Council derives data on gold reserves from International Financial Statistics under International Monetary Fund. All signatory central banks have to provide monthly updates to the IMF on their gold purchases forming part of their foreign exchange reserves.
