NBP gold and PLN 169 billion in profit. Central bank hits 'wave of disinformation'

The National Bank of Poland made money on gold, although formally it records losses? NBP denies the allegations in connection with “a new wave of disinformation” and, as it states in the latest entry on the X platform, on Thursday (April 9), the unrealized profit on gold reserves in NBP resources amounted to PLN 169 billion.

The gold of the National Bank of Poland, as well as the issue of profits from this operation, heats up not only public opinion, but also political discussion. It is no secret that the prices of the royal ore have been changing extremely dynamically in recent weeks. But the NBP has not been buying gold “since yesterday”, but for quite a few years. So what does the situation look like?

At the Thursday press conference after the Monetary Policy Council's decision on interest rates in Poland, the president of the NBP, prof. Adam Glapiński referred to the issue of the central bank's financial result for 2025. There were no major surprises here.

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As for the financial result, the situation is as follows: although NBP generated a positive result in 2025 on the management of foreign exchange reserves – i.e. in the area that depends directly on us – in the amount of PLN 24.7 billion, other factors weighed to the disadvantage. The strengthening of the Polish zloty resulted in a negative result from exchange rate differences in the total amount of minus PLN 36.7 billion. Additionally, the negative result of conducting monetary policy, i.e. the cost of fighting inflation by purchasing treasury bills from banks, amounted to PLN 21 billion. These factors caused that the final financial result of NBP for 2025 was negative and amounted to PLN 35.7 billion – admitted President Glapiński.

However, the National Bank of Poland defends the decision to increase gold reserves and points out that the unrealized profit on gold reserves in NBP resources amounted to PLN 169 billion.

Due to a new wave of disinformation, the National Bank of Poland informs that on Thursday (April 9) the unrealized profit on gold reserves in NBP resources amounted to PLN 169 billion. pic.twitter.com/cw0noxxEys

— National Bank of Poland (@nbppl) April 11, 2026

We have 580 tons of gold in reserves

Our reserves currently contain 580 tons of gold. I repeat: 580 tons. We took advantage of the drop in gold prices on world markets after the outbreak of the war in the Middle East and bought additional gold, increasing our resources to 580 tons – said President Glapiński during the last press conference.

We have started purchasing large amounts of gold again because the price is currently temporarily, I repeat temporarily, very favorable. We are aiming for 700 tons. Which, of course, will somehow consume this surplus; it will actually get smaller somehow. It decreased, it increased because the price of gold has already increased a bit, but ultimately gold will certainly gain in value, or even more (than the level before the correction, editor's note) – he explained.

The decision to make further purchases involves, among others: with the lack of political agreement on the use of the unrealized surplus value of gold resulting from the increase in its market prices. In the absence of systemic solutions in this matter, The National Bank of Poland maintains the current rate and continues to purchase gold on global markets.

The French took advantage of this (increases in gold prices), although not to support arms purchases, because they do not need them, or to support the budget, because they do not need them, but to replace old bars with new ones. And they increased the bank's equity capital. We could also perform this operation and increase our own capital – noted the president.

The presidential project is in the background “SAFE 0%”

The discussion about NBP gold was revived thanks to the presidential proposal “SAFE 0%”. Only a week after the first announcements, the public received the draft presidential bill on financing the expansion and modernization of the army. It follows that this goal is to be financed from the profits of the National Bank of Poland. Basically, the idea is that money for the army is to be created from changing the principles of valuation of NBP metal reserves.

Commenting on the project, the main analyst of Bankier.pl, Krzysztof Kolany, pointed out that the main source of financing is to be the profit of the National Bank of Poland.

And here we come to two fundamental problems. Firstly, in the current legal situation, 95% of the NBP's profit goes to the state budget, from which the money is spent for various purposes, including the army. If we redirect the NBP profit to PFIO, we will reduce budget revenues and thus the pool of new public funds will be zero. Secondly, in recent years, NBP has regularly reported losses. In 2022, the net result of the Polish central bank amounted to PLN -16.9 billion, a year later -PLN 20.8 billion, and in 2024 the loss amounted to PLN 13.3 billion – wrote Krzystof Kolany before showing the NBP results for 2025.

Prepared by JM

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