Gold reserves – quantities of gold held by a central bank or national treasury, stored as bullion in secure vaults – serve as protection against inflation, a currency stabilizer, and a safeguard against economic crises. Many countries continue to accumulate gold today, using it as strategic financial assets to strengthen their economies and protect their currencies on the global stage.
The gold reserves of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) remained unchanged in 2024. In the third quarter of last year, they amounted to 1.49 tons, the same as in the second quarter of 2024. On average, from 2000 to 2024, BiH had 1.54 tons of gold reserves, reaching a peak of 2.99 tons in the first quarter of 2013 and a record low of 0.00 tons in the second quarter of 2000.
In monetary terms, BiH‘s gold reserves in October 2024 amounted to 130.879 million dollars.
According to a report by the World Gold Council, out of 100 countries included, BiH ranked 100th in gold reserves last year. However, some other countries in the region are not particularly highly ranked either. For instance, Slovenia is ranked 91st (with reserves of 3.2 tons), and Albania is 90th (with reserves of 3.4 tons), while Serbia is the highest-ranked in the region, at 53rd place, with 43.6 tons of gold.
The World Gold Council notes that the rankings were updated in October 2024 and reflect the data available at that time. The data was sourced from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), International Financial Statistics (IFS) as of October 2024, and other sources. Not all countries worldwide are included on the list, as the Council states that some countries are known to possess gold but do not report it publicly.
The country with the largest gold reserves at the end of 2024 was the United States (U.S.) (8.133 tons), followed by Germany with significantly smaller reserves (3.351 tons). In third place was an organization – the IMF – with 2.814 tons. Italy (2.451 tons) and France (2.436 tons) rounded out the top five.