Singapore shines as third-largest growth in gold reserves in the past decade

The Lion City’s gold reserves grew by 20.68% from 127.4 to 153.74 tonnes.

A study showed that Singapore posted the third-largest increase in gold reserves in the past decade, which surged by 20.68% from 127.4 to 153.74 tonnes.

“Although Malaysia is considered to be the most similar country to Singapore by several metrics5, Malaysia’s gold reserves have increased by just 6.84% in the same period, a difference of 13.84 percentage points,” investment firm's CityIndex report showed.

The latest increase is the third of several recent significant gold purchases generated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (May 2021, June 2021, and January 2023) and is the largest single central bank gold purchase of 2023.6.

Matt Weller, head of market research at City Index, said the rise in gold investment demand was driven by investors’ concern involving the inflation challenges in the market.

“As central banks continue to use gold as an inflation hedge, it's not surprising to see individual investors following suit in the form of coins or jewellery, especially in countries such as India and China, where gold has long been considered a traditional store of value," said Weller, as quoted in the report.

City Index’s study seeks to find out which East and South East Asian markets had the biggest increase in gold reserves over the past decade.