World Gold Council: More central banks will increase their holdings of gold due to geopolitical risks

Shaokai Fan, head of global central banks at the World Gold Council, said on Tuesday that the role of gold as a hedge against de-dollarization and geopolitical risks is expected to prompt central banks that have previously been absent from the market to buy the precious metal this year.<br /> Central banks in Guatemala, Indonesia and Malaysia have started buying gold in recent months, he said, either returning to the market after a long pause or buying gold for the first time. "In the past few months, some new central banks, or central banks that have been inactive or absent from the gold market for a long time, are entering the gold market. I think this trend may continue in 2026." He added that some central banks also buy gold from small domestic producers to support local industries and prevent the gold from flowing to "informal participants."<br /> He also said that during a round of gold selling in October last year, central banks took the opportunity to increase their holdings, but it is still too early to judge whether a similar situation occurred in this month's decline.