Central banks worldwide continued their gold reserve increases in August 2026, with net purchases reaching 39 tons (Chart 1). Major economies that have been consistently making large-scale gold purchases in 2026 remained active this month, with China leading the pack, followed by Uzbekistan and Poland. From the beginning of the year to August, central banks reported a total of 170 tons of gold purchased. Chart 1: The central bank maintained net purchases in August, with net purchases of 39 tons of gold. (Monthly publicly released gold transaction data from the People's Bank of China, unit: tons, data statistics as of August 31, 2026, data sources: International Monetary Fund, central banks of various countries, World Gold Council) Looking at the August data over a larger timeframe: Data from the People's Bank of China's open market gold purchases from 2016 to 2025 shows a slight seasonality in central bank gold purchases, but significant differences exist between different years (Chart 2). Economic turmoil or rising geopolitical risks may influence gold purchasing behavior, but further research is needed, and no strong, sustainable driving factor has yet been identified. Chart 2: Average Monthly Net Gold Purchases, 2016-2025 Historical data shows that peak gold purchases are concentrated in June and September-October. Note: Monthly averages are calculated based on central bank gold purchase data from 2016-2025; error bars represent the 95% bootstrap confidence interval obtained through 5000 sample resampling. This bootstrap algorithm does not require the assumption that data follows a normal distribution and can better handle statistical uncertainties caused by outliers and asymmetric distributions. Data source: International Monetary Fund, central banks of various countries, World Gold Council. The structure of gold purchases in August is also noteworthy: the main buyers are still familiar economies that have long implemented multi-year gold reserve increase plans. This indicates that central bank gold purchases mainly serve long-term reserve allocation goals, and monthly data fluctuations are more due to differences in implementation pace, market environment, and the liquidity needs of individual countries. August transactions and year-to-date gold transactions of major central banks . National Bank of Poland: Continued its gold-buying trend, purchasing 8 tons of gold in August. From the beginning of 2026 to date, Poland has cumulatively purchased 98 tons of gold, ranking first globally, while China's gold purchase scale is rapidly catching up. Poland's current gold reserves have reached 648 tons, getting closer to its 700-ton target. The People's Bank of China: Achieved its 22nd consecutive month of gold purchases, adding 20 tons in August. Since the beginning of 2026, it has accumulated 80 tons of gold purchases, second only to Poland. China's official gold reserves are approximately 2,387 tons, accounting for 9% of its total reserves. The Central Bank of Uzbekistan: Purchased 8 tons of gold in August; cumulative purchases since the beginning of the year are close to 50 tons. Gold accounts for 90% of the country's total reserves, totaling approximately 439 tons. The National Bank of Kazakhstan: Purchased 7 tons of gold in August; cumulative purchases since the beginning of the year are close to 36 tons. Gold accounts for 79% of the country's total reserves, totaling approximately 377 tons. The National Bank of the Czech Republic: Has purchased gold for 42 consecutive months, continuing with purchases of 2 tons in August. Cumulative purchases since the beginning of the year are 14 tons, with gold reserves of 86 tons, accounting for 7% of the country's total reserves. The Central Bank of Turkey: After three consecutive months of net sales of gold, it achieved a net purchase of 3 tons in August. However, the country remains a net seller of gold since the beginning of 2026, with a cumulative net sale of 82 tons, the vast majority of which occurred in the first quarter of 2026. Bolivia and Ghana also purchased approximately 1 ton of gold each this month. The Central Bank of Russia continued its net selling of gold in August, selling 6 tons. Since the beginning of 2026, it has sold a cumulative total of 56 tons, bringing its total gold reserves to 2271 tons. The Central Bank of Jordan sold a net 3 tons of gold in August. Since the beginning of the year, it has made a net purchase of 2 tons, bringing its gold reserves to 75 tons, representing approximately 37% of its total reserves. Chart 3: Central Bank Gold Trading Activities Year-to-Date Net gold purchases/sales by central banks worldwide, unit: tons. Data as of August 31, 2026. Note: The Bulgarian central bank transferred 2 tons of gold to the European Central Bank due to joining the Eurozone; this transaction is not included in the chart. The Azerbaijani (National Oil Fund) data represents the gold reserves of the Azerbaijani National Oil Fund. Data source: International Monetary Fund, central banks worldwide, World Gold Council . Central bank gold reserve management opens new avenues. On September 2nd, the Dutch central bank announced the transfer of a total of 86 tons of gold from New York and Ottawa to London to improve the liquidity and tradability of its gold reserves. In recent years, many central banks have conducted gold repatriation or relocation operations. The French central bank also implemented a similar operation in 2025 to optimize the tradability of its gold reserves.