The National Bank of Poland said Tuesday the new purchases would significantly expand its bullion holdings, which already reached 550 tons at the end of 2025 following a record 100-ton accumulation last year, the largest declared central-bank purchase reported to the International Monetary Fund. At current market prices, the new buying program would be worth nearly $23 billion and exceed the total gold reserves of several large economies, including Brazil and Mexico.

"This will place Poland among the elite 10 countries with the largest gold reserves in the world." -Bloomberg

Central-bank gold accumulation has been a major driver of the metal's rally, which has doubled prices over the past 18 months. Buying accelerated sharply in 2022 after Russia's foreign-exchange reserves were immobilized, highlighting bullion's role as a reserve asset that cannot be frozen by foreign authorities.

Governor Adam Glapi?ski said last week that he intends to raise the ceiling for Poland's gold holdings to 700 tons, up from the current 550-ton level. Until now, the central bank was permitted to allocate up to 30 percent of its total reserve assets to gold. He added that there is no fixed timeline for reaching the new target.

The latest decision confirms Poland's long-running shift toward bullion as a strategic reserve anchor, positioning the country alongside long-established gold holders in Europe and reinforcing gold's growing role in sovereign reserve management amid rising geopolitical and financial fragmentation.

Poland currently holds approximately 550 tons of gold within total reserve assets of about $271 billion. At a gold price of $5,000 per ounce, those existing holdings equate to roughly $88 billion in value. If the National Bank of Poland completes its planned 150-ton purchase, total gold holdings would rise to 700 tons, valued near $112.5 billion, lifting Poland's total reserves to approximately $295 billion on a mark-to-market basis. Under that framework, gold would represent about 38 percent of Poland's total reserve assets, positioning the country among the most gold-concentrated reserve portfolios in the developed world.

Appendix: Data Box

Using the latest end-December 2025 NBP reserve total ($271.1bn) and the reported end-2025 gold stock (~550 tonnes) worth about $76.5bn :

Current gold share (end-2025): $76.5bn / $271.1bn ≈ 28.2%

Implied value per tonne: $76.5bn / 550t ≈ $139.1m per tonne

Value of +150t (at same implied valuation): 150t × $139.1m ≈ $20.9bn

New gold value: $76.5bn + $20.9bn ≈ $97.4bn

New total reserves (no selling of anything else): $271.1bn + $20.9bn ≈ $292.0bn

Gold as % of total reserves after +150t: $97.4bn / $292.0bn ≈ 33.3%

So under that price assumption, Poland would move from ~28% gold to about 33% gold of total reserves.

At $5,000 gold, with 700 tonnes and no asset sales, Poland's gold would represent approximately 36.6% of total central-bank reserves.