Central banks reported net purchases of 39 tonnes of gold in August 2026 and 170 tonnes since January, according to the World Gold Council’s central bank gold statistics for August, published on 6 October 2026. The World Gold Council compiles the figures from IMF data and central bank disclosures to 31 August 2026, where available. The People’s Bank of China led the month with 20 tonnes, its 22nd consecutive month of reported buying, followed by the Central Bank of Uzbekistan and the National Bank of Poland at 8 tonnes each.
| Central bank | August 2026 | Year to date | Reported holdings |
|---|---|---|---|
| People’s Bank of China | +20 t | +80 t | c. 2,387 t (9% of reserves) |
| National Bank of Poland | +8 t | +98 t | 648 t |
| Central Bank of Uzbekistan | +8 t | c. +50 t | c. 439 t (90% of reserves) |
| National Bank of Kazakhstan | +7 t | c. +36 t | c. 377 t (79% of reserves) |
| Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey | +3 t | −82 t | — |
| Czech National Bank | +2 t | +14 t | 86 t (7% of reserves) |
| Central Bank of Jordan | −3 t | +2 t | 75 t (c. 37% of reserves) |
| Central Bank of Russia | −6 t | −56 t | 2,271 t |
The Czech National Bank reported its 42nd consecutive month of purchases. The Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey returned to buying after three consecutive months of net sales, and the central banks of Bolivia and Ghana added about 1 tonne each. The World Gold Council excludes from its year-to-date chart the Bulgarian National Bank’s transfer of 2 tonnes to the European Central Bank on euro adoption.
The World Gold Council statistics record changes in reported holdings, not where a bar is vaulted or whether it moved. The World Gold Council’s September 2026 analysis of central bank gold relocations shows the two diverging. De Nederlandsche Bank transferred about 86 tonnes from New York and Ottawa to London between March and August 2026: around 59 tonnes were sold in New York and replaced with gold in London, and more than 27 tonnes were shipped to DNB’s facility in Zeist while a similar quantity moved from Zeist to London. The Banque de France sold 129 tonnes held in New York in 2025–26 and acquired an equivalent quantity in Europe, an operation it did not describe as a physical relocation. In 2000 the Bundesbank recast some of the bars it brought from London to Frankfurt to meet the Good Delivery standard. In each of these operations, location and Good Delivery status determined whether a bar was shipped, recast or sold and replaced, and a replacement bar carries its own serial number at a different vault. For a counterparty holding allocated bars recorded by serial number, the same two attributes under the LBMA Good Delivery standard decide whether a bar can be sold where it is held or must first be moved into the market where it trades. The same analysis cites a 2026 World Gold Council survey in which 57% of responding central banks named the Bank of England as a vaulting location, and records Singapore’s planned vaulting service for foreign central banks and Hong Kong’s expansion of gold clearing, settlement and storage infrastructure.
The August figures are reported positions compiled by the World Gold Council; each central bank’s custody locations are disclosed, where at all, by that central bank.