PANews, October 12 news: The central bank of Kazakhstan is shifting from a major global gold buyer to a seller, planning to reduce gold's share of its foreign exchange reserves from about 78% currently to 75% by the end of this year. Persistently rising U.S. Treasury yields are prompting the country to reassess the allocation ratio between gold and dollar-denominated assets.
The adjustment in Kazakhstan's reserve structure comes as the trend of sustained gold accumulation by global central banks over the past few years has not yet fully reversed. Data from the World Gold Council show that in the first eight months of 2026, the central bank of Kazakhstan was the world's fourth-largest gold buyer, while Poland, China, and Uzbekistan were the main buyers during the same period. An important backdrop for central banks' increased gold holdings is the emphasis on reserve asset diversification after the 2008 global financial crisis. In 2022, Western countries froze a large amount of Russia's foreign exchange reserves, further prompting some central banks to reassess their reliance on traditional foreign exchange assets.
But after the U.S.-Iran war broke out at the end of February this year, energy supplies were disrupted and import costs rose, increasing market demand for the dollar. Countries such as Turkey and Russia had already sold some gold earlier this year, showing that central banks' gold holdings do not only increase and never decrease, and are also affected by liquidity needs and asset allocation targets.