The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has increased its gold holdings by 25.45 metric tonnes over the past year, taking the total to 880.18 metric tonnes as of September 2025, according to its Half-Yearly Report on Management of Foreign Exchange Reserves (April–September 2025) released on Tuesday.
The central bank’s gold reserves stood at 854.73 metric tonnes in September 2024, reflecting a steady accumulation trend. Of the total gold holdings, 575.82 metric tonnes are held domestically, while 290.37 metric tonnes are stored with the Bank of England (BoE) and the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). Another 13.99 metric tonnes are maintained as gold deposits.
In value terms, the share of gold in India’s total foreign exchange reserves increased to 13.92% at the end of September 2025, up from 11.70% at the end of March 2025.
However, overall forex reserves declined slightly to USD 700.09 billion as of September 2025 from USD 705.78 billion a year earlier. During the first half of FY2025, reserves rose from USD 668.33 billion (March 2025) to USD 700.09 billion (September 2025), driven by gains in foreign currency assets (FCA).
Out of the total USD 579.18 billion FCA, about USD 489.54 billion was invested in securities, USD 46.11 billion was deposited with other central banks and the BIS, while USD 43.53 billion comprised deposits with commercial banks overseas.
The RBI said that both the US dollar and Euro are intervention currencies and that movements in FCA are influenced by forex purchases/sales, external aid inflows, and asset revaluations. A small portion of reserves continues to be managed by external asset managers to explore new strategies and diversification opportunities.
The RBI reiterated that safety and liquidity remain the primary goals of India’s reserve management strategy, with return optimisation considered within this framework.
