International central banks continue to increase gold reserves – Poland is even overtaking the ECB

• International central banks are relying on de-dollarization
• Poland is massively building up gold reserves
• Expert calls for German gold reserves to be brought back to the USA

Although the price of gold has already reached various new record highs in 2025, central banks around the world invested enormously in the yellow precious metal and continued to build up their holdings. This trend has been observed for a long time now: Emerging countries in particular have increasingly appeared as buyers in recent years – all the more so since they were able to observe how the democratic Western states reacted to the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine with harsh sanctions – because they want to make their reserves more independent of the US dollar.

According to experts, gold is considered a safe investment for state reserves. Compared to currencies, the yellow precious metal is significantly less susceptible to inflationary monetary policy and cannot be increased at will. In addition, owning gold strengthens the trustworthiness of central banks and national currencies.

Poland overtakes ECB

Central banks in Europe are also expanding their gold reserves. Especially in times of global crises and financial uncertainty, gold is becoming increasingly important for central banks in all regions of the world in order to diversify currency reserves and become more independent of the US dollar. Experts speak of “de-dollarization.” Poland is at the forefront here. As “euronews” reports, the Polish National Bank (NPB) has increased its gold reserves to around 550 tons. While gold only made up 16.86 percent of Poland’s foreign exchange reserves in 2024, estimates from the end of December 2025 now put it at 28.22 percent.

This amount of gold is considerable because the European Central Bank, which controls the monetary policy of the… Eurozone managed, only has gold reserves of around 506.5 tons. Given this, Poland occupies an important position in the European financial architecture. The NPB President Prof. Adam Glapinski, who is responsible for the strategic development of Poland’s gold reserves, wants to continue this course and, according to “euronews”, is even aiming for an increase to 700 tons of gold bars. Donald Trump’s erratic policies and his growing unreliability as an alliance partner are likely to play a significant role in the effort to reduce dependence on the US dollar.

Country ranking

According to data from “Statista” (as of the third quarter of 2025), Poland was in eleventh place in the ranking of countries with the largest gold reserves with 515.3 tons of the yellow precious metal. The USA (8,133.5 tons) and Germany (3,350.3 tons) have the largest stocks by far. This is followed by Italy, France, Russia and China with 2,303.5 to 2,451.8 tons.

Trump is causing uncertainty in Germany

Decades ago, the German Bundesbank decided to keep only about half of its gold reserves in Frankfurt. In order to secure Germany’s independence – for example in the event of a Soviet attack – around 37 percent are stored in New York, the rest is kept by the Bank of England in London, according to “n-tv”.

But as a result of Donald Trump’s increasing radicalization, the former head of the Bundesbank’s research department, Emanuel Mönch, is now concerned about the security of German gold reserves in the USA and advises a rethink: “Given the geopolitical situation, it currently seems risky to store so much gold in the USA. In the interests of greater strategic independence from the USA, the Bundesbank would be well advised to think about a return campaign,” he demands in the “Handelsblatt”.

However, Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel sees no need for action here: “I have no doubt that our gold is safely stored at the Fed in New York,” Nagel told the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” with a view to its storage at the US Federal Reserve. “These are our currency reserves with special protection status.”

Editorial team finanzen.net