Serbia’s central bank has revealed plans to relocate all of its gold reserves—valued at roughly £4.7 billion—back to its own territory, in a move aimed at safeguarding the stockpile during times of crisis.
This would make Serbia the first country in Eastern Europe to entirely eschew established storage locations such as Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
“In bringing the gold back to Serbia, the National Bank sought to enhance both its accessibility and security during periods of instability,” the institution stated, noting that the repatriation effort had commenced in 2021 amid growing global uncertainty.
Following the freezing of Russia’s foreign currency reserves in 2022, the rate of gold accumulation by central banks worldwide doubled, underscoring the political risk involved in holding reserves in US dollar and euro-denominated assets. Housing gold bars domestically reduces the threat of external interference.
Between 2019 and the end of last year, Serbia acquired 17 tonnes of gold abroad and a further 19 tonnes from the local arm of Zijin Mining Group. This brought the total reserve to 50.5 tonnes, nearly all stored in Belgrade—except for five tonnes bought in 2024, which remain in Switzerland for now.
Those final five tonnes will be brought back “as soon as possible,” according to Governor Jorgovanka Tabaković. Serbia’s neighbours hold differing proportions of their reserves domestically, ranging from 86% in Hungary to around 25% in Poland, as per data compiled by Bloomberg.
The central bank said it had weighed the pros and cons before committing to full repatriation, admitting that while holding gold in global market hubs facilitates easier selling and lending, the risks outweighed those advantages.
The Bank of England’s vault in London currently houses a significant portion of the world’s gold reserves—around £430 billion in value—cementing the UK’s position as the primary hub for precious metals trading. Similarly, the Federal Reserve in New York holds gold on behalf of nations including Germany and the Netherlands.
Germany’s decision to bring gold back home over a decade ago sparked national debate and was driven by Cold War fears. Though the Soviet threat has since faded, the metal remained overseas until the repatriation effort was completed.
Other countries, such as Poland and the Netherlands, have followed suit, while similar calls for domestic storage have echoed through Slovakia and Romania.
The notion of storing gold within national borders has gained traction among rising populist movements, such as Germany’s Alternative für Deutschland, which regards it as a crucial safeguard against international political pressure.
