Bank of Portugal gold worth €21Bn

Portugal’s gold reserves have soared to a new record worth of almost €21Bn on the back of gains by the US dollar.

This is despite the fact that bullion prices have fallen on the International markets, and without Mário Centeno, who heads the Bank of Portugal, even having moved it (half of the reserves are kept overseas), or buying more gold.
“The amount of gold held by the bank has not changed”, remaining at 382.5 tonnes, revealed the Bank of Portugal in its Report to the Board of Directors released on Wednesday. On the other hand there has been a “slight devaluation in the price of gold against the dollar”.
The main reason it has gone up in value is because of the “positive evolution of the spot gold rates per ounce in euros”, explains the central bank.
Although the price per ounce in dollars had fallen 0.2% in 2022, the price of gold has gained by 6%, which has enabled Bank of Portugal’s reserves to gain in value by €1.189Bn. In this period the dollar gained 6.2% against the euro.
Since 2017 Portuguese gold reserves have been gaining value thanks to the price of gold going up on the international bullion markets, and have practically doubled in value in a decade when in 2013 the reserves were worth €10.7Bn.
According to the supervisor, the gold reserves represent an acquisition cost of around €3Bn since “because the capital gains associated with this asset” are €17.96Bn.
Gold reserves in Portugal have remained stable since 2007, but last year achieved a record value of almost €21Bn.