For years, gold has been a valuable asset countries have held as a means to boost their foreign exchange reserves and stabilise the national currency.

During political and financial uncertainty, most governments depend on their gold reserves as the most reliable investment in securing assets. As of March 2024, gold hit a record high after the precious metal scaled to $2,100 per ounce.

According to Insidermonkey, a financial publishing firm, here are the ten countries that have the largest gold reserves in the world;

As of Q4 2023, the United States held the largest gold reserves in the world with a total of 8,133.46 tonnes representing 69.89% of its central bank reserves

Germany followed the US with gold reserves capacity of 3,352.65 tonnes accounting for 69.06% of gold holdings in its Central Bank.

Italy has the third-largest gold reserves in the world with total reserves of 2,451.84 tonnes. The country holds 65.89% of gold holdings in its Central Bank.

France has 2,436.97 tonnes of gold reserves and its Central Bank reserves hold 67.28% of gold holdings.

Russia’s Central Bank has 26.05% of total gold holdings and 2,332.74 tonnes of gold reserves, as of Q4 2023.

China has 2,235.39 tonnes of gold reserves and holds 4.33% of gold holdings in its Central Bank.

Switzerland has 1,040 tonnes of gold reserves and 7.64% of gold holdings in its Central Bank.

Japan has 845.97 tonnes of gold reserves and holds 4.37% of gold holdings in its Central Bank.

India’s total gold reserves stand at 803.58 tonnes accounting for 8.54% of gold holdings in the country’s Central Bank.

The Netherlands has 58.34% of gold holdings in its Central Bank and 612.45 tonnes of gold reserves.

As several governments seek to capitalise on their natural resources to drive economic growth and reduce dependency on volatile commodities, Nigeria and a couple of other African countries have also followed through with their inclusion in the gold reserves ranking.

According to Forbes, Nigeria is ranked in sixth position among the top ten African countries with the most substantial gold reserves with 21.37 metric tons of gold reserves, valued at $1 billion.

Gold, unlike fiat currencies, is not affected by inflation and other market tensions and this makes the commodity retain its value against all the odds in the market.