How much gold does RBI have?

The Reserve Bank of India held 880.52 tonnes of gold at the end of March 2026, according to its latest half-yearly report on foreign exchange reserves. That is up from 760.42 tonnes in March 2022.

Where is India's gold kept?

At the end of March 2026, 680.05 tonnes were held in India, 197.67 tonnes were in safe custody with the Bank of England and the Bank for International Settlements, and 2.80 tonnes were held as gold deposits, per RBI. News reports say the domestic stock sits in RBI vaults in Mumbai and Nagpur.

Why did RBI bring gold back from the UK?

Then Governor Shaktikanta Das said in June 2024 that RBI's gold buying had swelled the stock held abroad, India now had domestic storage capacity, and 'nothing more should be read into it'. Commentators have linked the trend to the 2022 freezing of Russia's reserves, but RBI has not given that as a reason.

When did RBI move 100 tonnes of gold from London?

The move happened during the financial year 2023-24 and became public on 31 May 2024. RBI's own data show gold held in India rose by about 107 tonnes in that year, from 301.10 to 408.31 tonnes.

What share of India's forex reserves is gold?

Gold was about 16.70% of India's foreign exchange reserves by value at the end of March 2026, per RBI, up from about 7% in March 2022. On RBI's weekly data for 30 October 2026, the share works out to about 14.3%.

Is RBI still buying gold?

RBI's holdings rose by about 57 tonnes in 2024-25 but by less than one tonne in 2025-26, according to its half-yearly reports. Most of the change since then has been in where the gold is stored, not how much there is.

Why RBI Brought India's Gold Home From London

Q: Did India pledge its gold in 1991?

Yes. The Finance Ministry told Parliament that in July 1991 RBI pledged 46.91 tonnes of gold with the Bank of Japan and the Bank of England and raised a loan of US$405 million. RBI repaid it between September and November 1991.

The short answer: Between March 2023 and March 2026, the gold the Reserve Bank of India keeps in its own vaults rose by about 379 tonnes, while the gold it keeps with the Bank of England in London and the Bank for International Settlements fell by about 240 tonnes. The first big tranche, about 100 tonnes, made headlines in May 2024. RBI’s only official explanation is practical: its gold pile had grown, India now had room to store it, and “nothing more should be read into it”. The wider reasons that analysts point to, especially the West’s 2022 freeze of Russia’s reserves, are plausible context, but RBI has never cited them.

Key numbers
RBI’s total gold, end-March 2026	880.52 tonnes [1]
Held in India, end-March 2026	680.05 tonnes (77%) [1]
Held in India, end-March 2023	301.10 tonnes (38%) [7]
With Bank of England and BIS, end-March 2026	197.67 tonnes, down from 437.22 tonnes in March 2023 [1][7]
Gold’s share of forex reserves, end-March 2026	about 16.70%, up from about 7.01% in March 2022 [1][8]
Value of RBI gold, 30 October 2026	Rs 9,74,120 crore (US$102.6 billion) [10]
Gold pledged abroad in July 1991	46.91 tonnes, for a US$405 million loan [11]

What actually happened in 2024

How the news broke

On 31 May 2024, Indian media reported that RBI had shifted about 100 tonnes of gold from the United Kingdom to vaults in India [26][27]. Business Today, citing unnamed sources, called it the first time since 1991 that gold had been added to the stock kept in the country, and said more could follow, with decisions taken yearly [27]. Sanjeev Sanyal, then a member of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council, posted on X: “While no one was watching, RBI has shifted 100 tonnes of its gold reserves back to India from the UK” [26].

The reports said gold in India is held in vaults at RBI’s old office building on Mumbai’s Mint Road and in Nagpur [26][27]. Neither RBI nor the government has published how the gold was transported, insured or scheduled, so treat any detailed accounts of flights and logistics as unconfirmed.

What RBI said

A week later, at the post-policy press conference on 7 June 2024, a Reuters reporter asked whether the move signalled a change in policy linked to geopolitical tensions and the freezing of Russia’s reserves [9]. Governor Shaktikanta Das said, according to RBI’s own edited transcript [9][28]:

“In fact, I am quite surprised that it is appearing in the media so late. We release half-yearly data of our gold reserves and that clearly says how much is held in India and how much is held outside India… Basically, the quantum of gold held by the RBI outside the country was static for a long time. But in the recent years, the data shows that the Reserve Bank has been buying gold as a part of its reserves management, and the quantum held outside was going up. We have domestic capacity now, and we felt part of the gold should be stored within the country. That is it. Nothing more should be read into it.”

Asked about a 1993 committee recommendation to keep part of the gold in an offshore centre, Das said a high-level committee takes the call on this [9].

He had a point about the data. RBI’s half-yearly reports show the gold held in India rose from 301.10 tonnes at the end of March 2023 to 372.84 tonnes by September 2023, and to 408.31 tonnes by March 2024 [5][6][7]. That is an increase of about 107 tonnes during 2023-24, sitting in public documents months before anyone wrote about it.

It did not stop at 100 tonnes

The 2024 headline turned out to be the first chapter. RBI has kept bringing gold home every year since, and its numbers tell the story more clearly than any leak.

Date	Total gold	Held in India	With BoE and BIS	Gold deposits	Gold share of reserves
Mar 2022	760.42 t	295.82 t	453.52 t	11.08 t	7.01% [8]
Mar 2023	794.64 t	301.10 t	437.22 t	56.32 t	7.81% [7]
Mar 2024	822.10 t	408.31 t	387.26 t	26.53 t	8.15% [5]
Sep 2024	854.73 t	510.46 t	324.01 t	20.26 t	9.32% [4]
Mar 2025	879.59 t	511.99 t	348.62 t	18.98 t	11.70% [3]
Sep 2025	880.18 t	575.82 t	290.37 t	13.99 t	13.92% [2]
Mar 2026	880.52 t	680.05 t	197.67 t	2.80 t	16.70% [1]

Three things stand out.

The moves came in waves. Gold held in India jumped by about 102 tonnes between April and September 2024 [4][5], by about 64 tonnes between April and September 2025 [2][3], and by about 104 tonnes between October 2025 and March 2026 [1][2]. Bloomberg, reporting on RBI’s October 2025 data, noted that RBI “didn’t give a reason for the shift” [29].

The balance has flipped. In March 2023, less than two-fifths of India’s gold was at home. By March 2026, more than three-quarters was [1][7]. By our calculation from RBI’s figures, the domestic share went from about 58% in March 2025 to about 77% in March 2026 [1][3].

“Gold deposits” have nearly disappeared. RBI reports a separate category of gold held as deposits. It fell from 56.32 tonnes in March 2023 to just 2.80 tonnes in March 2026 [1][7]. RBI does not say where these deposits were or why they were run down, so any explanation is guesswork.

The latest edition of RBI’s half-yearly report, published on 30 April 2026, covers the position at end-March 2026 [1]. The next edition, for end-September 2026, had not been published as of 10 November 2026. RBI’s weekly data show the value of its gold, not the tonnes or where they sit [10].

Why was India’s gold in London at all?

The 1991 airlift

To understand why India’s gold was abroad in the first place, go back to the balance-of-payments crisis of 1991, when India was close to running out of foreign currency to pay for imports.

The Finance Ministry later told Parliament that “as part of the reserves management policy and as a means of raising resources, RBI in July 1991 pledged 46.91 tonnes of gold with the Bank of Japan and the Bank of England and raised a loan of US$ 405.0 million” [11]. The loan was repaid between September and November 1991 [11].

RBI’s official history, excerpted by Business Standard, adds two details [25]. RBI arranged to airlift the gold to the Bank of England. And earlier in 1991, the government made 20 tonnes of its own gold available to State Bank of India, which sold it to UBS with an option to buy it back, raising a little more than US$200 million [25].

News coverage of the 2024 move repeatedly recalled that episode [26][27], even though RBI framed the return as routine housekeeping [9].

The 2009 purchase

The other landmark is more recent. In October 2009 the International Monetary Fund sold 200 tonnes of gold to RBI, for about US$6.7 billion, in daily sales spread over two weeks [12]. The IMF release does not say where the gold was delivered, and RBI does not publish which bars sit in which vault. What RBI does publish is the split: in March 2022, 453.52 tonnes were with the Bank of England and the BIS against 295.82 tonnes in India [8].

Why central banks keep gold in London

London is the hub of the world’s wholesale gold market. The Bank of England says its vaults hold around 400,000 bars, and that it provides safe custody for the UK’s own gold and for other central banks [14]. It says this supports financial stability “by providing central banks with access to the liquidity of the London gold market” [14].

The practical benefit is speed. The Bank of England says its customers can trade gold bars with other customers at the Bank, and the gold usually does not move; only the owner’s name changes on its records [14]. By implication, gold sitting outside London has to be shipped before it can change hands that way.

Central banks have also used London gold to earn a return. In a 2023 survey by the asset manager Invesco, one Western central bank said it had kept gold in London, “using it for swaps and to enhance yields”, before moving it home “to keep it safe” [24].

The Bank of England held about 185.9 million troy ounces of gold at the end of September 2026, according to its published data [15]. That is roughly 5,780 tonnes by our conversion, which is more than six times RBI’s entire stock.

London still pulls some central banks in. The World Gold Council (WGC), the gold industry’s market development body, notes that the Dutch central bank moved gold to London in 2026 to make it “more readily deployable”, with “liquidity and tradability” as its stated aim [20].

Why many are bringing gold home

The Russia factor

On 28 February 2022, after Russia invaded Ukraine, the US Treasury barred Americans from transacting with Russia’s central bank, a step it said “effectively immobilizes any assets of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation” [13]. The G7 and the European Union also moved against Russia’s reserves [29]. For central banks everywhere, it was a vivid reminder that reserves held in someone else’s jurisdiction depend on that country’s goodwill.

Surveys suggest the lesson landed:

In Invesco’s 2023 study of 57 central banks and 85 sovereign wealth funds, 58% of central banks agreed that the freezing of Russia’s reserves had made gold more attractive [24].
Among central banks raising their gold allocations, 38% cited “concern about freezing of central bank assets (e.g. Russia)” as a reason [24].
The share of central banks holding physical gold in their own country rose from 50% in 2020 to 68% in 2023 in the same survey [24].

Indian commentary has drawn the same line. Bloomberg’s report on RBI’s October 2025 data described repatriation as “accelerating” after the West froze Russia’s reserves [29]. That is the reporter’s framing, not RBI’s. RBI has not linked its moves to sanctions, and Das explicitly declined to [9].

Trust and control

Russia is not the only cautionary tale. Venezuela’s central bank has spent years in English courts after rival boards, linked to Nicolás Maduro and to opposition leader Juan Guaidó, gave conflicting instructions over reserves including nearly US$1 billion held in the Bank of England’s vaults [17]. Whoever is right, the episode showed that a foreign custodian can end up deciding who gets access to a country’s gold.

Germany ran a long repatriation programme of its own. Between 2013 and 2017 the Bundesbank moved 674 tonnes of gold to Frankfurt from Paris and New York [16]. It still keeps about 37% of its gold in New York and 13% in London [16], which shows that bringing gold home is usually about rebalancing, not abandoning foreign vaults.

Cost

Some reports have said that keeping gold in India will save RBI the storage fees it pays to the Bank of England [27]. No fee figures have been published by RBI or the Bank of England, so this cannot be checked, and any saving is likely small next to the value of the gold.

What the latest surveys say

The WGC’s 2026 survey of central banks, based on 76 responses gathered between February and May 2026, found the Bank of England is still the most common place to vault gold, used by 57% of respondents [18][19]. Some 49% held at least part of their gold at home [19]. Over the following 12 months, 7% planned to increase domestic storage, and 9% planned to spread their foreign storage across more locations, up from 2% a year earlier [19]. A WGC analyst summed up the balancing act as weighing “custody risk, physical accessibility and market liquidity” [20].

Fact versus speculation

On the record:

Gold held in India rose by about 107 tonnes in 2023-24 and by about 379 tonnes between March 2023 and March 2026, while gold with the Bank of England and the BIS fell by about 240 tonnes [1][5][7].
RBI’s stated reason in 2024: more gold, enough domestic capacity, and “nothing more should be read into it” [9].
India now holds about 77% of its gold at home, and still keeps 197.67 tonnes with the Bank of England and the BIS [1].

Reported or likely, not confirmed:

That sanctions risk after the Russia freeze influenced RBI. Plausible and widely suggested [24][29], but never stated by RBI.
That storage fees were a factor [27].
That more gold will keep coming home. The trend points that way, but RBI has made no announcement.

RBI’s gold-buying streak, and the pause

Moving gold is only half the story. The other half is that RBI bought a lot of it.

RBI’s holdings rose from 760.42 tonnes in March 2022 to 879.59 tonnes in March 2025, an addition of about 119 tonnes in three years [3][8]. The WGC says RBI bought 73 tonnes in calendar 2024, more than four times its 16 tonnes in 2023, ending 2024 with 876 tonnes [21].

Then buying almost stopped. RBI’s holdings rose by less than one tonne between March 2025 and March 2026, to 880.52 tonnes [1][3]. Yet gold’s share of India’s reserves kept rising, from 11.70% to about 16.70% [1][3]. With almost no new buying, that rise reflects the value of gold already held going up relative to India’s other reserves.

Globally, central banks have kept buying. The WGC estimates they bought more than 1,000 tonnes in 2024 and 863 tonnes in 2025, with Poland the biggest buyer in both years [21][22]. Central banks and other official institutions added 321 tonnes in July to September 2026 alone, according to the WGC [23].

Why it matters to an ordinary Indian

You will not see RBI’s gold, and moving it does not put a rupee in anyone’s pocket. But it matters in a few concrete ways.

It is part of the country’s emergency fund. RBI says safety and liquidity are the “twin objectives” of managing India’s reserves, with returns a secondary aim [1]. India’s reserves covered about 10.8 months of imports at the end of December 2025 [1]. Gold is now a far bigger slice of that cushion than it was five years ago.

It supports confidence in the rupee. Foreign investors and lenders watch India’s reserves when judging whether the country can pay its bills and defend its currency in a crisis. On 30 October 2026, India’s total reserves stood at Rs 68,08,728 crore (US$717.1 billion), of which gold was worth Rs 9,74,120 crore (US$102.6 billion) [10]. By our calculation, that puts gold at about 14.3% of reserves.

Its value swings. Because gold is valued at market prices, its rupee value moves with the gold price and the exchange rate. RBI books these gains and losses in a separate account meant to act as a buffer [1]. RBI’s weekly data show its gold was worth Rs 1,20,190 crore less on 30 October 2026 than at the end of March 2026 [10]. The weekly figures do not say how much of that change came from prices and how much, if any, from transactions.

It is a trade-off, not a free lunch. Gold at home is under India’s own control and beyond the reach of foreign courts or sanctions. Gold in London is quicker to sell, lend or pledge. RBI has chosen to hold most of it at home while keeping a meaningful slice abroad, and it has not said what share it is aiming for.

The bottom line: in 1991, India had to fly its gold out to survive. Thirty-five years later, it has been flying gold home, quietly and in stages, from a far stronger position. The official reason is ordinary. Why it happened now is a question RBI has chosen not to answer.

An explainer for general reading, based on public records as of 10 November 2026. Not investment, tax or legal advice.