Gold, Forex Reserves And The RBI: Why The Government Is Challenging This Report

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Key points generated by AI, verified by newsroom

• Official disclosures confirm increased gold holdings, not sales.

The Centre has rejected a Bloomberg report claiming the Reserve Bank of India sold approximately $12 billion worth of gold from its foreign exchange reserves. Citing official RBI data, PIB said the share of gold in India’s reserves has, in fact, been rising.

What Bloomberg Claimed

Bloomberg Economics reported that the RBI likely offloaded a portion of its gold holdings in the two weeks through May 22 to protect its foreign currency assets from the fallout of the West Asian conflict. The analysis, attributed to the agency’s senior India economist Abhishek Gupta, argued that despite a hike in import duties on gold, the dollar value of the RBI’s holdings fell. Gupta concluded that this pointed to active selling by the central bank.

RBI Clarifies: No Gold Has Been Sold

The RBI directly addressed the reports on Wednesday, calling them incorrect. In a statement, the central bank said it had come across media accounts of an alleged gold sale and wanted to set the record straight. “The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has come across reports in certain sections of the media about RBI’s sale of gold. The RBI emphasises that these reports are not correct,” it said.

The central bank pointed to its Monthly Bulletin as the primary source for verified gold holding data, noting that the physical stock stands unchanged at 880.52 metric tonnes. It also urged the public to rely only on official disclosures from the RBI rather than third-party analyses.

What The RBI Data Shows

PIB countered this by pointing to RBI data showing a sustained increase in gold’s share of India’s total foreign exchange reserves. The share stood at 13.92 per cent at the end of September 2025. It rose to 16.70 per cent as of March 31, 2026, and climbed further to 16.85 per cent by May 22, 2026. A rising share does not support the claim that the RBI was selling gold.

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How RBI Discloses Its Gold Holdings

The RBI publishes the physical quantity of gold it holds in its Monthly Bulletin, available on its official website. This includes the volume in metric tonnes and the rupee and dollar value of the holdings. According to the latest available data, India held 880.52 metric tonnes of gold as of late April 2026. PIB advised citizens to visit rbi.org.in for accurate and verified reserve data.

Why The Claim Matters

India’s forex reserves are closely watched as a measure of economic stability. Gold now comprises a significant and growing share of those reserves, and any large-scale sale by the RBI would carry implications for currency markets and investor confidence. The PIB fact-check is a reminder that movements in reserve data require careful reading before conclusions are drawn, especially when analysed through a third-party lens rather than official disclosures.

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