Despite the achievement of over 20% of share in foreign currency reserves, the National Bank of Poland in May continued to buy gold – according to Bankier.pl calculations. The scale of these purchases, however, was smaller than in the previous three months.
Based on the NBP reports published at the beginning of each month on official reserve assets at Bankier.pl, we calculate how the reserves of the Golden Central Bank changed. According to the latest data, at the end of May, the “Monetary Gold” position at the NBP was valued at $ 54.58 billion.
This gives (rounded) 16.573 million ounces – according to Bankier.pl calculationsi.e. by 200,000 ounces more than at the end of April, when 15.373 million ounces were officially reported. After the reserve of the National Bank of Poland They increased last month by 6.25 tons and reached 515.5 tons.
Adam Glapiński himself informed about exceeding the level of 500 tons of gold in April. However, we must wait for the official confirmation of these calculations until June 20, when the NBP publishes the statistics of liquid assets and liabilities in foreign currencies. However, in recent years, the preliminary estimates of Bankier.pl have regularly coincided with the later publications of the NBP.
– Poland today has over 500 tons of gold, and its share in reserves exceeded 20 percent. This is the result of a thoughtful, long -term strategy, which we consistently implement to strengthen the financial security of our country and provide future generations with stability – Adam Glapiński, president of the Polish National Bank, announced on April 24.
NBP exceeded the level of 20% of gold in reserves
According to already published data, at the end of May 2025, gold accounted for 22.4% of Poland's foreign reserves. NBP President Adam Glapiński publicly announced in 2021 that the bank's goal is to achieve a state in which gold is 20 percent. of the total foreign reserves of Poland.
This goal was not only achieved, but even slightly exceeded. In part, this happened due to the large bullion purchases carried out by the NBP, and partly due to the strong appreciation of gold relative to the dollar and other fiducinent currencies. Only from the beginning of 2025 gold prices expressed in USD went up by 28%, at the end of April setting a new nominal- as well as a real record of all time at the level of over 3,500 USD per ounce. In 2024, the dollar quotations of the “barbaric relic” increased by 27.2% after the increase by 13.2% a year earlier, almost doubled over the last 5 years.
In the first quarter of 2025, the National Bank of Poland was the largest institutional buyer of gold in the world – according to the report of the World Gold Council. In total, for the first three months of this year, central banks acquired 243.7 tons of gold, of which 49 tons fell at the NBP
On shopping for nearly six years, the Golden National Bank of Poland could earn well. I.e. He could have sold and collected profits if he had gold. But it is known that he will not do it, because the ore reserves were not increased to earn on them. But in order to diversify the structure of foreign currency reserves, increase Poland's credibility on financial markets and even partly become independent of dollars and euros, and from foreign governments. On the other hand, purely accounting in 2024 alone, at the very change in the valuation of gold NBP gained PLN 32.1 billion.
Buy and bring to the country
Now it's time to bring the purchased gold to the treasury located in Poland. – At the moment it is about a quarter, because it is the gold we are currently buying, it is bought mainly in London and is immediately in London in the treasury. If we get a full 20% gold reserves, we will organize one large gold transport from London to Poland. And there will be a third in Poland, one -third in London and the third in New York – said President Adam Glapiński during the last press conference.
A similar transport, which was mentioned by the president of the NBP, was organized once in autumn 2019, when 3.214 million Trojan ounces were transported to Poland from the Bank of England, i.e. 100 tons of gold. According to the NBP, there were eight transports in total, each 1000 staff. Gold was transported specially for this purpose with planes with the participation of the police, the Border Guard and the airports in Warsaw and Poznań.
One of the NBP treasures in April was visited by the deputy editor-in-chief of Bankier.pl Tomasz Goss-Strzelecki. – After opening the armored doors and grilles, openwork steel crates arranged on the shelves. Each of them marked with the NBP logo and the Polish flag and containing golden bars – he described
Goss-Strzelecki.
The NBP annual report showed that at the end of 2024 there were nearly 105 tons of gold in Poland, while over 343 tons were stored in the treasures of the Bank of England and the American Federal Reserve. After shopping from the first quarter, these disproportions are probably even higher and mean that there are about 392 tons of gold NBP abroad, i.e. almost 79% of gold reserves. It follows that transport to Poland requires over 70 tons of gold.
