NBP now has more gold than ECB. 500 tons of vaults burst

In April, the National Bank of Poland continued to purchase gold, thanks to which Polish reserves of the royal metal have exceeded the level of 500 tons and are already larger than those accumulated by the European Central Bank.

Based on the data published at the beginning of each month NBP reports on official reserve assets at Bankier.pl editorial office we calculate how the central bank's gold reserves have changed. According to the latest data at the end of April the "monetary gold" position in the NBP was valued at $53.77 billion.

That's 16.373 million ounces – according to Bankier.pl calculations , which is 400 thousand ounces more than at the end of March, when it was officially 15.973 million ounces were reported. After calculating the National Bank's reserve Polish increased by 12.45 tons last month and reached a volume of 509.26 tons. the president himself announced that the level of 500 tons of gold had been exceeded two weeks ago NBP Adam Glapiński.

- Poland now has over 500 tons of gold, and its share in reserves exceeded 20 percent. This is the result of a well-thought-out, long-term strategy, which we consistently implement to strengthen the financial security of our the country and ensure stability for future generations, announced the President of the National Bank of Poland, Adam Glapiński, on April 24.

However, for an "even more official" confirmation of these However, we have to wait for the calculations until May 21, when the NBP will publish the statistics liquid assets and liabilities in foreign currencies.

When our estimates are reflected in official reports submitted by central banks to the International Monetary Fund Currency, we will be able to say that the National Bank of Poland has more gold than the European Central Bank. The latter, according to the latest available data reported possession of 506.5 tons of the "barbaric relic."

IN In March, the Polish central bank purchased almost 16.5 tons of the yellow metal . In In February, the National Bank of Poland made the largest changes since June 2019 monthly gold purchases, increasing its holdings by nearly 29 tonnes. In addition, in January Polish gold reserves increased by only 3.11 tons . In the whole of 2024 The NBP acquired nearly 90 tons of royal metal . The year before NBP has purchased approximately 130 tons of the “barbaric relic.” Over the past two years Polish ore reserves were increased by 220 tons and another 61 tons in the first four months of 2025.

As it is already clear published data, at the end of April 2025 gold accounted for 22.2% Poland's currency reserves . President NBP Adam Glapiński publicly announced in 2021 that the bank's goal is reaching a state where gold constitutes 20 percent of total currency reserves Polish.

In this way, this goal was achieved. It was partially This is due to large purchases of precious metals made by the NBP, and partly due to the strong appreciation of gold against the dollar and other fiat currencies. Since the beginning of 2025 alone, gold prices expressed in USD have increased by almost 30%, at the end of April establishing new nominal - and also real - record all-time high of over 3,500 USD per ounce . In 2024, the dollar The "barbaric relic" stock rose 27.2% after a 13.2% gain a year earlier previously, almost doubling over the last 5 years.

IN In the first quarter of 2025, the National Bank of Poland was the largest institutional gold buyer in the world - according to a report by the World Gold Council. In total in the first three months of this year, central banks purchased 243.7 tons of gold, of which 49 tonnes went to the NBP.

On gold purchases conducted for almost six years The National Bank of Poland could earn good money. That is, it could if the gold it owns sold and cashed in the profits. But it is known that he will not do that because the reserves the precious metals were not increased in order to make money on them. But in order to diversify the structure of currency reserves, increase Poland's credibility on the financial markets and become at least partially independent from the issuers of dollars and euro and from foreign governments. However, purely accounting-wise in In 2024 alone, the NBP gained PLN 32.1 billion from the change in gold valuation alone .

Now it is time to bring the purchased gold to the vaults located on in Poland . - At the moment it is about one quarter, because it is the gold we buy nowadays is mainly bought in London and immediately in London is invested in the treasury. When we get the full 20% of the reserves in gold, then we will organize one big gold transport from London to Poland. And there will be one third in Poland, one third in London and yet third in New York – he spoke in during the last press conference, President Adam Glapiński.

A similar transport mentioned by the NBP president has already happened once was organized in the autumn of 2019, when the Bank of England was transported to Poland 3.214 million troy ounces, or 100 tons of gold . As reported by NBP, there were eight transports in total, each containing 1,000 bars. Gold were transported on specially chartered planes for this purpose cooperation of the police, Border Guard and airports in Warsaw and Poznań.

One of the NBP vaults was visited last week deputy editor-in-chief of Bankier.pl Tomasz Goss-Strzelecki . - After After opening the armored doors and grates, we saw them arranged on shelves openwork steel boxes. Each of them marked with the NBP logo and the Polish flag and containing gold bars - he described Goss-Strzelecki.

- You can see for yourself that each bar Polish gold, brought to Poland in 2019, is physically located in NBP vaults – said then the NBP Chief Treasurer Barbara Jaroszek. Such For example, citizens of the United States cannot be certain , because the last independent The audit of Fort Knox's assets was conducted over 70 years ago . The last the first time anyone other than the people of Fort Knox saw this gold was in 1974 during visits of congressmen.

The NBP annual report showed that at the end of 2024, nearly 105 tons of gold were in Poland, while over 343 tons were stored in vaults of the Bank of England and the US Federal Reserve. After purchases from In the first quarter these disproportions are probably even greater and mean that There are approximately 392 tons of NBP gold abroad, which is almost 79% of gold reserves. This means that over 70 tons of gold will need to be transported to Poland.

Source: