India Gold Reserves: The Reserve Bank of India Brings Gold Home
India’s gold reserves stood at 880.52 tonnes at the end of March 2026, held by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). More than three quarters of it is now stored in India. At that time, gold made up 16.7 per cent of India’s foreign exchange reserves.
How much gold does India have?
According to the RBI’s annual report, gold holdings rose slightly in the financial year to the end of March 2026, from 879.58 to 880.52 tonnes. The World Gold Council lists India in ninth place with around 881 tonnes.
In June 2026 the RBI rejected reports that it had sold gold. The trigger was an analysis by Bloomberg Economics, which suspected sales worth around US$12 billion in May. The fall in the dollar value of the reserve – US$2.19 billion in the week to 29 May – was due to price changes, the RBI said, and the quantity was unchanged.
Where is India’s gold stored?
The RBI publishes the breakdown twice a year in its report on the management of foreign exchange reserves. At the end of March 2026, 680.05 tonnes were in India. 197.67 tonnes were held by the Bank of England and the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), and a further 2.80 tonnes were placed as gold deposits.
Six months earlier, at the end of September 2025, only 575.8 tonnes were in India and 290.37 tonnes abroad. Between October 2025 and March 2026 the RBI thus brought 104.23 tonnes to India. The domestic share rose in this half-year from around two thirds to just over three quarters. The 2.80 tonnes of gold deposits are gold that is not held in a vault but placed as a deposit.
The repatriation since 2024
In 2024 the RBI brought around 100 tonnes of gold from the United Kingdom to India. It was the first transfer of this size since 1991. Further shipments followed, so the domestic share is now just over three quarters.
The Bank of England is one of the most important custodians of central bank gold. Among other holdings, it stores 404 tonnes of the Bundesbank’s gold, around a fifth of Switzerland’s gold and, since 2026, just under a third of the Netherlands’ gold. The RBI does not give detailed reasons for the repatriation in its reports. Media coverage mostly links the repatriation to growing global risks.
History: 1991 and 2009
In 1991 India fell into a severe balance of payments crisis. In July 1991 the RBI took 46.91 tonnes of gold to the Bank of England and the Bank of Japan and raised around US$400 million with it. The gold served as collateral and was redeemed between September and November 1991 after the loan had been repaid.
Between 19 and 30 October 2009 the RBI bought 200 tonnes of gold from the IMF. The Fund had decided to sell 403.3 tonnes, so India took almost half. The purchase price was around US$6.7 billion, and the holdings rose from 357 to 557 tonnes as a result.
Gold in India’s reserve policy
The gold share of foreign exchange reserves rose within six months from 13.92 per cent in September 2025 to 16.70 per cent in March 2026. As the quantity stayed almost the same over the same period, the increase is mainly due to the gold price, not to purchases. By 22 May 2026 the share had risen further to 16.85 per cent.
