Tamer Elgamil ·
Central banks added a record 289 tonnes in the second quarter of 2026 while the price was falling. Egypt was not among them; it buys Egyptian-mined gold and pays in pounds.
"Central banks are buying, so gold must be worth holding" is one of the most common reasons Egyptian savers give for keeping gold. In 2026 that claim is half right, and the Central Bank of Egypt is not an example of it. Egypt does add gold, steadily and in meaningful amounts, but it does it in a way almost no other central bank can copy.
Central banks added a net 289 tonnes of gold to their reserves in the second quarter of 2026, according to the World Gold Council's Gold Demand Trends report. That was 62% more than the 178 tonnes added in the same quarter of 2025, and about five times the roughly 57 tonnes added in the first quarter of 2026. It was the strongest second quarter on record.
Poland's central bank was the largest single buyer at 51 tonnes. China's added 33 tonnes, its biggest quarterly addition since late 2023. Uzbekistan added 16 tonnes, Kazakhstan 15, and Jordan and the Czech Republic 6 each.
What makes the quarter notable is the timing. The London benchmark price averaged about $4,506 an ounce over those three months, and the correction from January's record was already well under way. Buying at that pace into a falling market is the opposite of chasing a rally.
The World Gold Council attached its own qualifier, and it matters. Across the whole first half of 2026, net official-sector purchases came to just 345 tonnes. That is the lowest first half in four years, because Turkey, Russia and Azerbaijan were net sellers over the same stretch. The record quarter was not central banks acting as one. It was some buying heavily while others sold.
Egypt was not among the large reported buyers. What it holds is a reserve of close to 130 tonnes, worth about $19.05 billion at the end of August 2026, or roughly 33% of the country's net international reserves of $57.2 billion.
That gold figure jumped about $1.9 billion during August, but almost all of the jump was price, not purchases. The international ounce rose more than 10% over the month. Egypt itself added only about 8,000 ounces, which is around 249 kilograms.
The longer story is the interesting one. Egypt's gold reserve sat at 75.6 tonnes for years without moving. In February 2022 the central bank added roughly 44 tonnes at once, taking it to about 125 tonnes. Since then it has crept upward, and it has done so without going to the international bullion market.
Two domestic channels do the work.
In both cases Egypt is turning a domestic resource, gold mined from Egyptian ground, into a reserve asset, and paying for it in its own currency instead of spending scarce foreign currency abroad. For a country that has spent years managing a shortage of dollars, that is the whole point of the arrangement.
Central banks do not decide about gold the way a household decides whether to buy this month or next. Egypt's reserve moves on a multi-year logic tied to reserve diversification and, unusually, to how much its own mines produce. It is not a reading of where the price is going.
So there is one real fact here for an Egyptian saver. A large, patient holder nearby did not sell into the 2026 correction, and several central banks abroad added near-record tonnage while the price was falling rather than rising.
There is also no signal to act on. The Central Bank of Egypt publishes no forward plan for its gold. And 289 tonnes, record quarter or not, is a thin slice of the roughly 216,000 tonnes of gold estimated to have been mined in all of human history. Official buying is one input into a very large market, not a forecast.
If anything carries across to a household, it is not the direction of the trade but the holding period. Egypt's central bank treats gold as something it accumulates over decades and does not trade on headlines. That is a description of official behaviour, not a recommendation, and it is not a price prediction.
For the local numbers, see gold price by karat and price history. The methodology page explains how the prices on this site are collected, and the gold bars page covers the bullion form central banks themselves hold.
Some did. The World Gold Council recorded a net 289 tonnes of central-bank buying in the second quarter of 2026, a record for a second quarter, at a time when the price was correcting from January's high. Poland added 51 tonnes and China 33 tonnes.
No, and the half-year figure shows why. Net official-sector purchases for the whole first half of 2026 were only 345 tonnes, the lowest first half in four years, because Turkey, Russia and Azerbaijan were net sellers over the same period. Some bought heavily while others sold.
Mainly through domestic mining rather than the international bullion market. It provides financing in Egyptian pounds to the Sukari mine's operating company and receives refined bars in return, and Shalateen Mineral Resources delivers gold collected and refined from the Eastern Desert, priced internationally but paid in pounds at the official exchange rate. Shalateen delivered 945 kilograms in 2025 and has said it is aiming for 1.5 tonnes in 2026.
No. It is one input among many in a very large market. Even a record 289 tonnes is a thin slice of the roughly 216,000 tonnes estimated to have been mined in all of human history, and the Central Bank of Egypt publishes no forward plan for its purchases. This article does not predict prices and is not investment advice.