Serbia has 36.7 tons of gold reserves, which is 12.6 percent of all foreign exchange reserves, and recently all gold bars are in the country. During the recent presentation of the inflation report, Jorgovanka Tabakovic, the governor of the National Bank of Serbia, said that the transfer of gold reserves (repatriation) is a common practice.
Explaining why it is good for gold reserves to be in Serbia, she cited as an example the difficulties the NBS had in returning one ton of gold left over from the succession. According to her, the repatriation of gold reserves is carried out by numerous countries, including Germany and Serbia. The NBS is expanding the options in which it keeps reserves so that the state can meet all its obligations.
– None of the countries that have property of that kind, wants to take risks, including difficulties with the transport of gold, such as what we had when we had to deliver cash during the pandemic. That was at the moment when we had increased requests for payment in foreign currency, which lasted for a short time,” stated Tabakovic, adding that no one wants to take risks, that they will not be able to withdraw the property they have for any reason.
According to earlier statements by the head of the NBS, that one ton was in Basel at the Bank for International Payments (BIS). In addition, at the beginning of the year, Zijin, which exploits the Bor mine, delivered two tons of gold to the National Bank, since the NBS buys gold produced in the country. Tabakovic said that the NBS will be careful about future purchases of gold, and that it will depend on the need to primarily support the economy, and when the needs for state stability are met, then the excess reserves can be left in gold.
She added that, when it comes to buying new quantities of gold, the NBS will consider when is the right time for that, ie when the best possible market conditions are, and that the public will be informed in a timely manner. All the quantities that were bought from the former RTB Bor and Zijin were paid in dinars, the governor stated. The NBS has achieved the goal of having 12.6 percent of foreign exchange reserves in gold, which is still below the average of developed countries of 19.4 percent.
However, it does not exclude the possibility that the domestic gold bars may be increased to 50 tons next year. Leaving reserves in gold depends on the circumstances, Politika reports.
