The World Gold Council announced that the Central Bank of Egypt purchased 44.4 tons of gold last February, placing it as the largest buyer of the yellow metal among global central banks in the first quarter of this year.
According to the report of the World Gold Council for the month of May 2022, the volume of gold at the Central Bank increased by 55% to reach 125.3 tons at the end of February, or 19.4% of the total foreign currency reserveswhich is the highest among the countries in the region.
The report pointed out that Egypt is working to increase domestic gold production in the long term through the Sukari mine and others, but the decline in the foreign exchange component within the reserves may mean that the country has resorted to international markets to buy quantities of gold.
The Central Bank of Egypt announced that the value of gold included in foreign exchange reserves during February 2022 increased by about $2.703 billion, to reach $6.907 billion, compared to $4.204 billion at the end of January 2022, while the value of the listed foreign currencies declined to $31.585 billion, compared to $34.141 billion. The balance of the special drawing rights amounted to 2.508 billion dollars, compared to 2.2642 billion dollars at the end of January 2022.
Egypt jumped to rank 33 globally, and fourth in the Arab world after (Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Algeria), after it was ranked 41 globally and sixth in the Arab world in the Gold Council report for the month of April, possessing 80.9 tons, representing 12.4% of total reserves at the end of January.
The balance of foreign cash reserves with the Central Bank of Egypt scored about 37.082 billion dollars at the end of last March, compared to 40.099 billion dollars at the end of the previous February.
The World Gold Council ranking includes the 100 largest gold-holding countries and institutions, including the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank.
And the World Gold Council report indicated that central banks around the world boosted their reserves by 84 tons in the first quarter of the year, doubling the purchase quantities from the previous quarter, but these quantities decreased by 29% from the same quarter of 2021.