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Business: The gold reserves of the Reserve Bank of India increased by 25.45 metric tons in the last 12 months to 880 metric tons (about 9 lakh kg) by September 2025. The central bank’s gold reserves increased from 854.73 metric tonnes at the end of September 2024 to 880.18 metric tonnes at the end of the first half of the current financial year. It increased by 25.45 metric tons. The central bank has said this in a half-yearly report released on Tuesday.
“As of the end of September 2025, the Reserve Bank had 880.18 metric tonnes of gold. The Reserve Bank has reported that 575.82 metric tonnes of its gold reserves are in the country, while 290.37 metric tonnes of gold is with the Bank of England (BOE) and the Bank for International Settlements (BIS),” the RBI said in its half-yearly report for April-September 2025 released on Tuesday on foreign exchange reserve management. 13.99 metric tonnes of gold has been kept in safe custody with the Central Bank.
The share of gold in the country’s total foreign exchange reserves increased from 11.70 percent by the end of March 2025 to about 13.92 percent by the end of September 2025. However, during this period the foreign exchange reserves declined marginally to US $ 700.09 billion by the end of September 2025. By the end of September 2024 it was USD 705.78 billion. Reserves increased from $668.33 billion at the end of March 2025 to $700.09 billion at the end of September 2025.
Although both the dollar and the euro can be used to anchor the rupee and are included in foreign currency assets (FCA), foreign exchange reserves are expressed in US dollars only. According to the RBI, “Fluctuations in the FCA are mainly due to changes in purchases and sales of foreign exchange by the RBI, earnings from foreign exchange reserves, receipts of external assistance by the Central Government and revaluation of assets.”
Foreign currency assets include multi-currency assets, which are held in a multi-asset portfolio as per the existing norms, which are in line with the international best practices followed in this regard. As of end-September 2025, out of the total FCA of USD 579.18 billion, USD 489.54 billion was invested in securities, USD 46.11 billion were deposited with other central banks and BIS and the remaining USD 43.53 billion were deposited with commercial banks abroad.
“With a view to exploring new strategies and products in reserve management while diversifying the portfolio, a small portion of the reserves are being managed on behalf of external asset managers. Investments made on behalf of external asset managers are governed by approvals granted in accordance with the RBI Act, 1934,” it said.
