Portugal: Gold reserve worth more than €33B as price keeps rising
Wed Feb 12 2025
The price of gold continues to rise, making the reserves of the Bank of Portugal (BdP) more valuable, which are already worth more than €33 billion, an increase of 7% in January 2025. The central bank has around 383 tonnes of gold, a reserve asset that constitutes a means of international payment and a store of value. Gold’s value has been increasing in recent years.
Between 2020 and 2023, the value of the BdP’s reserves fluctuated around €20 billion, but from 2024 onwards, it began to soar. In March, it jumped to €25 billion, and in October, it rose to over €31 billion. At the end of last year, between November and December, it fell back. In January 2025 it skyrocketed again to €33.201 billion, 7% higher than in December, according to the figures available on the BdP’s website.
The institution led by Mário Centeno doesn’t yet have figures available for February, but according to Lusa’s calculations, at the current price per ounce, the reserves are now worth almost €39 billion, although this amount varies depending on market movements. Gold has been on an upward trend, and this week, it recorded new highs close to the $2,900 per ounce barrier, fuelled by trade tensions between China and the United States.
According to analysts at Banca March, gold ‘is once again recovering its role as a safe haven asset after Donald Trump came to power and in the face of central banks that continue to relax their monetary policies’. They also emphasise that gold continues to rise and that purchases are encouraged by the possibility of a trade war between the US and China, the world’s two largest powers.
Source: https://www.macaubusiness.com/