How Much Gold Does the Reserve Bank of New Zealand Have in 2024?

We’ve had the odd query from other New Zealanders asking, “how much gold does the Reserve ‎Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) actually have?” Today we delve into this topic in depth…

Our guess is people are probably asking because since the 2008 financial crisis, net gold purchases by global central banks have clearly switched from negative (i.e. they were selling), to positive (i.e. they are buying).

Central Banks Buy Record Amounts of Gold in 2024

This purchasing has really ramped up in the last few years too. The World Gold Council reports that as of March 2024:

• Central bank net demand totalled 290t in Q1 – the strongest start to any year on record
• Reported purchases remained broad-based, with China, Turkey and India leading the way

Source.

The below chart shows global central bank gold purchases just up to end of March 2024. It also clearly shows just how significant the increase in central bank purchases have been since 2022.

Below were the top 10 buyers and the 3 sellers in the first quarter. “East and Central Asian central banks accounted for the majority of Q1 net purchases“:

So is the‎ Reserve ‎Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) Also Buying Gold?‎

Well we’re sorry to report folks, the news isn’t so great.‎

Last time we checked a dash didn’t mean that the number was too big to report! But was ‎rather a simple alternative for the number zero.  So according to the RBNZ website, ‎New Zealand has $0 worth of gold deposits from a grand total of zero fine troy ounces of gold.‎

The RBNZ Confirms No Gold Reserves in Official Information Act Request

On the 12 May 2023, the RBNZ also confirmed in an Official Information Act request that “the RBNZ does not hold gold as part of its foreign reserves.”

How Does New Zealand Compare to the Leading Gold Holding Nations?

The below chart shows the gold reserves of 20 largest gold holding countries worldwide as of June 2023 (in metric tons). The smallest – Poland – has 277 tons of gold.

Source: Statista

The Top 100 Gold Holders

Further confirmation of New Zealand’s total gold reserves comes from the World Gold Council.  They periodically ‎take information compiled by the IMF to create a ranking of gold deposits of ‎countries.‎

The lazy mans research site – Wikipedia means we don’t have to look too hard for the ‎latest figures though.  The table below ranks each nation according to it’s ‎officially reported gold holdings as of November 2009.‎

We can save you some time searching and state that unfortunately New Zealand does not feature – at all.‎

World official gold holding (November 2009)^[11]

Rank	Country/Organization	Gold (tonnes)	Gold’s share of total forex reserves (%)[11]
1	United States	8,133.5	77.4%
2	Germany	3,408.3	69.2%
3	International Monetary Fund	3,005.3	–
4	Italy	2,451.8	66.6%
5	France	2,445.1	70.6%
6	China	1,054.0[12]	1.9%
7	Switzerland	1,040.1	29.1%
8	Japan	765.2	2.3%
9	Netherlands	612.5	59.6%
10	Russia	568.4	4.3%
11	India	557.7[6]	6%
12	European Central Bank	501.4	18.8%
13	Taiwan	423.6	3.9%
14	Spain	416.8	42.5%
15	Portugal	382.5	90.2%
16	Venezuela	363.9	35.5%
17	United Kingdom	310.3	18.7%
18	Lebanon	286.8	30.0%
19	Austria	280.0	50.5%
20	Belgium	227.5	42.5%
21	Algeria	173.6	3.6%
22	Philippines	153.9	12.3%
23	Libya	143.8	4.5%
24	Saudi Arabia	143.0	12.4%
25	Sweden	135.9	14.2%
26	Singapore	127.4	2.2%
27	Bank for International Settlements	125.0	–
28	South Africa	124.7	11.0%
29	Turkey	116.1	4.7%
30	Greece	112.5	92.8%
31	Romania	103.7	8.4%
32	Poland	102.9	5.0%
33	Thailand	87.4	2.2%
34	Australia	79.8	7.3%
35	Kuwait	79.0	11.9%
36	Egypt	75.6	6.4%
37	Indonesia	73.1	4.3%
38	Kazakhstan	72.0	11.6%
39	Denmark	66.5	4.7%
40	Pakistan	65.4	20.3%
41	Argentina	54.7	3.4%
42	Finland	49.1	17.6%
43	Bulgaria	39.9	7.6%
44	West African Economic and Monetary Union	36.5	11.8%
45	Malaysia	36.4	1.2%
46	Slovakia	35.1	81.6%
47	Peru	34.7	3.3%
48	Brazil	33.6	0.5%
49	Bolivia	28.3	10.3%
50	Ecuador	26.3	11.6%
51	Ukraine	26.2	2.0%
52	Syria	25.9	–
53	Morocco	22.0	2.2%
54	Nigeria	21.4	0.9%
55	Belarus	20.3	11.6%
56	Sri Lanka	15.3[7]	3.8%
57	Jordan	14.8	5.2%
58	South Korea	14.3	0.1%
59	Cyprus	13.9	29.7%
60	Czech Republic	13.2	0.9%
61	Netherlands Antilles	13.1	31.4%
62	Cambodia	12.4	12.9%
63	Qatar	12.4	2.6%
64	Serbia	12.2	2.3%
65	Laos	8.1	23.1%
66	Latvia	7.7	3.3%
67	El Salvador	7.3	8.2%
68	Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa	7.1	–
69	Guatemala	6.9	3.9%
70	Colombia	6.9	0.8%
71	Macedonia	6.8	7.6%
72	Tunisia	6.8	2.1%
73	Lithuania	5.8	2.3%
74	Ireland	5.5	16.3%
75	Mongolia	5.2	10.9%
76	Bahrain	4.7	–
77	Mauritius	3.9[8]	2.4%
78	Bangladesh	3.5	1.6%
79	Mexico	3.4	0.1%
80	Canada	3.4	0.2%
81	Slovenia	3.2	7.2%
82	Aruba	3.1	17.1%
83	Hungary	3.1	0.3%
84	Mozambique	3.0	4.6%
85	Kyrgyzstan	2.6	5.3%
86	Luxembourg	2.3	10.8%
87	Albania	2.2	2.6%
88	Hong Kong	2.1	0.0%
89	Iceland	2.0	1.9%
90	Tajikistan	2.0	–
91	Papua New Guinea	2.0	2.1%
92	Trinidad and Tobago	1.9	0.6%
93	Yemen	1.6	0.5%
94	Suriname	1.4	7.0%
95	Cameroon	0.9	–
96	Honduras	0.7	0.7%
97	Paraguay	0.7	0.6%
98	Dominican Republic	0.6	0.7%
99	Gabon	0.4	–
100	Republic of the Congo	0.3	–
101	Chad	0.3	–
102	Central African Republic	0.3	–
103	Uruguay	0.3	0.1%
104	Estonia	0.2	0.1%
105	Chile	0.2	0.0%
106	Malta	0.2	0.8%
107	Costa Rica	0.1	0.0%

Note: Wikipedia doesn’t appear to have a top 100 list anymore. It’s now just a top 50. However Trading Economics now does. You can see that list here. The holdings of most countries have not changed too dramatically since 2009. Although some, such as Russia and China have increased significantly. We can however confirm as of 2024, New Zealand still has zero gold reserves.

It’s a bit of a worry when Haiti, which the world bank ‎reports as the poorest country in the Latin American and Caribbean region and among the poorest countries in the world, recently had more gold reserves than New Zealand does!‎

While even our small pacific neighbour Fiji has 0.03 tonnes!

Fiji may come in at number 107 on the list and only have 0.03 tonnes but that’s 0.03 ‎tonnes more than us!  (Or about $2.85 Million NZD in Gold reserves more than New Zealand)‎.

Just like we believe the average person should have at least a small percentage of their ‎liquid net worth held in gold, we too think the RBNZ would be wise to convert some ‎of its foreign currency reserves into real money. Thereby ensuring a store of value in a time ‎when currencies the world over are being depreciated at ever greater speed.‎

Read more: Why New Zealand Won’t Have Any Say in a Global Currency Reset

Will Central Banks Keep Buying Gold?

The Peoples Bank of China (PBOC) used to only spasmodically update its gold holdings. Prior to resuming regular reporting in November 2022, the last time was in 2019 and before that 2016. However there is also a decent argument to made that China likely holds gold in vehicles that it does not report on either. The PBOC just reported that it didn’t buy any gold in May 2024. But it shouldn’t be a surprise to see them scale back their purchases with gold at record high prices. In fact such an announcement might help nudge the price a little lower giving them a good opportunity to return to buying without telling anyone.

But just how much more buying might be likely?

Well, the World Gold Council includes another interesting statistic in their own top 100 countries list. That is the percentage that gold makes up of each nations total reserves.

You can see below that the likes of USA, Germany, Italy and France, who are the top 4 gold holders each have around 70% of their reserves in gold. While the recent buyers of Russia and China have only 29% and 5% respectively. So potentially there is a lot more buying to be done by these nations in order to level the playing field.

Why the RBNZ is Very Unlikely to Buy Gold

However, it’s very unlikely that the New Zealand central bank will buy any gold in the future. Even though so many other central banks have been doing just that since 2009. Why do we think that?

Because back in 2012 a reader forwarded us an email from the RBNZ that said:

Dear Jake

Thank you for your question and apologies for the delay in responding.

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand has not held any gold reserves since 1991.

Our reserves management responsibilities are set out in the Reserve Bank Act of 1989 and our foreign reserve targets are specified by the Minister of Finance. The Reserve Bank is not, at this stage, planning to include gold in our foreign reserve portfolio. The Reserve Bank’s position is that gold does not meet our liquidity requirements.

Kind regards

Raewyn Peters
Knowledge Adviser | Reserve Bank of New Zealand
2 The Terrace, Wellington 6011 | P O Box 2498, Wellington 6140
T. +64 4 472 2029 | F. +64 4 471 3722
www.rbnz.govt.nz

Interesting that gold does not meet the RBNZ’s “liquidity requirements”. Even though gold can be sold at a moments notice and turned into cash. So the odds of a turn around from the Reserve Bank on buying gold looks slim indeed.

So best you prepare yourself and become your own central bank and buy some gold or silver.

Editors note: This post was first published 5 December 2009. Last updated 10 June 2024 with new charts and numbers and addition of 2024 central bank gold buying charts.