Singapore’s central bank boosted gold reserves 30% in January

Singapore boosted its gold reserves by about 30% in January, joining central banks from China to Turkey in building up holdings of the precious metal.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore’s bullion reserves rose to 6.4 million fine troy ounces, or 199 tons, at the end of January, up from 4.9 million ounces a month earlier, a spokesperson for the central bank said in response to emailed questions. The total value of its bullion was $4.5 billion at the end of the period, the authority said.

“This is Singapore’s second-largest gold purchase ever in one month,” Ronan Manly, a precious metals analyst at Singapore dealer BullionStar, said in a blog post. The biggest was in 1968, when it bought 100 tons from South Africa, he said.

Central banks worldwide have been building holdings of bullion as the dollar’s strength has waned in recent months, while retail buyers have also bolstered purchases as a shield from geopolitical uncertainty and rampant inflation. China increased its gold reserves for a fourth straight month in February, while Turkey was the biggest buyer of the precious metal among central banks last year.

Spot gold was little changed at $1,831.34 an ounce as of 9:54 a.m. in Singapore. It climbed 1% Thursday after a metric of US unemployment came in higher than expected, increasing the scope for the Federal Reserve to take a less hawkish approach. Bullion is down more than 1% this week, but is still slightly above where it was at the start of the year.

(By Ranjeetha Pakiam)