Despite Turkey and Russia selling off large amounts, global central banks still had a net gold purchase of 27 tons in February.

```

Selling pressure failed to interrupt the pace of gold purchases by central banks worldwide.

The latest central bank gold statistics report released by the World Gold Council on April 2 shows that in February 2026, global central banks had net gold purchases of 27 tons, a significant rebound from January’s sluggish performance and basically in line with the monthly average of 26 tons for the whole year of 2025. The cumulative net purchases for the first two months this year were 31 tons, lower than the 50 tons in the same period last year.

The largest sellers in the month, Turkey and Russia, reduced their holdings by 8 tons and 6 tons respectively, but the buying power was sufficient to offset the selling pressure. Poland topped the list with a single-month purchase of 20 tons, driving the overall net buying trend among global central banks.

Poland leads, multiple countries continue to increase holdings

In February, the National Bank of Poland purchased 20 tons of gold, the largest single-month purchase since February 2025 (29 tons). Its total gold reserves rose to 570 tons, accounting for 31% of total reserves.

Poland’s central bank governor Adam Glapiński previously announced a gold reserve target of 700 tons. Notably, Glapiński recently proposed a scheme—to raise about $13 billion for defense spending by selling gold reserves, and indicated the intention to "buy back after generating returns," but the details of this plan remain unclear.

Regarding continuous gold purchases, the Czech National Bank has net bought gold for 36 consecutive months, with gold reserves rising to 75 tons, accounting for 7% of total reserves; The People’s Bank of China has increased holdings for the 16th consecutive month; Uzbekistan has net bought gold for five consecutive months, increasing reserves by 8 tons to reach 407 tons, accounting for 88% of total reserves.

Kazakhstan increased holdings by 8 tons, bringing gold reserves up to 348 tons, the highest since January 2023. The Central Bank of Malaysia continued its momentum from January, buying another 2 tons and accumulating a total of 5 tons since the start of the year.

Turkey: Reduced holdings in February, larger movements in March

Turkey’s gold reserves decreased by 8 tons in February. The World Gold Council pointed out that, according to its calculations, this reduction mainly reflects a decrease in Treasury holdings, rather than a change in the central bank’s own reserves.

In March, the situation became even more significant. The World Gold Council estimates that Turkey’s central bank utilized around 50 tons of gold reserves in March for liquidity management and foreign exchange operations. On this, central bank governor Fatih Karahan stated: "A considerable portion of these transactions are in the nature of gold-foreign exchange swap forwards. In other words, upon maturity, the relevant gold will be returned to our reserves."

African Central Banks: Emerging forces enter the scene

The World Gold Council report also noted that African central banks are gradually including gold as a strategic diversification tool.

The Bank of Uganda launched a domestic gold acquisition program two years ago, and will officially begin implementation in March 2026. The goal is to purchase at least 100 kilograms of gold from domestic artisanal and medium-to-large mining companies between March and June, to strengthen reserves and hedge against international financial market risks.

Kenya’s central bank governor Kamau Thugge also expressed a similar intention at a news conference in early February. The World Gold Council believes this trend shows African central banks are increasingly using gold as a strategic diversification tool.

Risk Warning and DisclaimerThe market entails risk and investment requires caution. This article does not constitute personal investment advice and does not take into account individual users’ special investment objectives, financial situations, or needs. Users should consider whether any opinions, views, or conclusions in this article are suitable for their specific circumstances. Investments based on this are made at your own risk. ```