Gold's multi-year climb has leaned heavily on official buyers, and the latest quarter showed that support holding even with prices close to historic highs. Central banks and other public institutions added a net 321 tons in the three months through September, their heaviest quarter since the end of 2024 according to Bloomberg, and the World Gold Council's quarterly report put their purchases so far this year at 675 tons, a little above the same stretch of 2025. The year had begun quietly for reserve managers. A strong second quarter, followed by this one, has since erased that early shortfall.
Who exactly is buying remains only partly visible. The council's totals combine purchases that governments disclose with estimates of transactions that never appear in official statistics, and the undisclosed share has been large for several years. Of the reported additions, the People's Bank of China and the National Bank of Poland accounted for the bulk, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan were the only other buyers of note, and Russia was the lone sizeable seller, the council's central bank breakdown showed. Several of the smaller buyers are themselves gold producers, a reminder that domestic mining programs feed reserves as well as the open market. Continued accumulation at such prices is generally read as a sign of strategic reserve diversification rather than opportunistic buying.
The official-sector strength arrived in an otherwise mixed market. Jewellery demand slid to its weakest third quarter in the council's records, bar and coin buyers hesitated, and exchange-traded funds returned to inflows, the report said, which also now expects official purchases to at least match last year's total. Day-to-day prices, meanwhile, have been driven by forces largely outside the official sector. Gold slipped on Tuesday as oil rose on renewed Middle East tension and traders weighed a higher chance of a Federal Reserve rate increase in December, CNBC reported. Higher yields raise the cost of holding an asset that pays no interest, a consideration that weighs on investors more than on reserve managers who hold gold for decades.