Central banks repatriate gold and boost bullion demand

That matters economically because gold held inside national borders, or at least in a trusted allied jurisdiction, is easier to mobilize in an emergency and less exposed to sanctions, counterparty risk or access restrictions. The lesson from the freezing of Russian reserves in 2022 was stark: foreign-exchange assets in another country are only as usable as the political relationship allows. Gold is different. It has no issuer, no credit risk and no dependence on a central bank’s promise to pay. For reserve managers, that makes it more attractive when geopolitical frictions rise.

The Dutch move is not isolated. France has withdrawn all of its gold from the Federal Reserve’s vaults in New York, while India has repatriated more than 100 tons from Britain and reduced the share of its reserves held abroad to 22% in March 2026 from 55% three years earlier. Germany, Austria and Hungary have also been moving bullion home for years. The pattern suggests a structural re-evaluation of what reserve safety means: not just where assets can be stored cheaply, but where they can actually be controlled when stress hits.

At the same time, central banks are still buying. Net official-sector demand reached 863 tons in 2025, almost twice the 2010-2021 average, even if it fell below the more than 1,000 tons a year bought in the previous three years. Poland has emerged as the largest declared buyer for a second year, adding 102 tons in 2025 and another 51 tons in the second quarter of 2026, with the governor targeting 700 tons on national-security grounds. China, Turkey, India and Iraq are also among the biggest buyers since 2022, underscoring how geopolitical exposure is feeding demand across very different economies.

For investors, the reserve shift reinforces gold’s role as a strategic asset rather than a short-term trade. It helps explain why bullion and gold-backed funds have retained support even when the US dollar remains dominant and Treasury markets still offer unmatched depth and liquidity. GLD and IAU have both tracked a year of elevated interest in gold, though recent price action has cooled from earlier highs, with conventional technical indicators such as the 50-day moving average and RSI showing the ETFs have pulled back from overbought conditions.

The broader market backdrop also remains supportive. US 10-year yields are still around 5%, a level that normally pressures non-yielding assets, but bullion has held up because official demand and geopolitical hedging are offsetting the carry cost. That does not mean a collapse of dollar dominance is underway. Rather, it suggests reserve managers are diversifying at the margin, using gold to reduce reliance on any single financial system without abandoning the dollar or Western custody networks altogether.

The most important implication for markets is that the floor under gold may be getting firmer. If central banks continue to increase both their holdings and the share stored in preferred jurisdictions such as London or at home, the demand base becomes less sensitive to short-term rate moves and more tied to strategic risk management. That is a harder force for investors to fade, and it leaves bullion better positioned than many other reserve assets if geopolitical tensions stay elevated.