The Central Bank will return to buying gold from banks after new sanctions against them

From Monday, March 28, the Bank of RUSSIA will again start buying gold from credit institutions, but at a fixed price, the press service of the regulator said. Until June 30, the cost of the precious metal in such transactions will be 5 thousand rubles. per gram, which is 17% lower than the book price for refined gold as of March 25.

“The established price level allows us to ensure a stable supply of gold and the smooth functioning of the gold mining industry this year. After the specified period, the purchase price of gold can be adjusted,” the Central Bank said. As noted in the message, the regulator returns to purchases of metal in the domestic market "in order to ensure a balance between supply and demand."

After the start of the Russian military special operation in Ukraine, the Central Bank twice changed the tactics of conducting transactions with gold: on February 27, against the backdrop of the threat of sanctions by Western countries against gold and foreign exchange reserves, the regulator announced the start of buying up gold from commercial banks after an almost two-year break, but already on March 15 changed its mind, having suspended such operations due to the growth of the population's demand for physical gold: against the backdrop of the devaluation of the ruble and the restrictions imposed on operations with foreign cash currency, citizens began to actively invest in gold bars, coins and depersonalized metal accounts.

The Central Bank announced the resumption of gold purchases after the expansion of sanctions: on March 24, the UK authorities introduced blocking restrictions against Alfa-Bank, Gazprombank, Russian Agricultural Bank, SMP Bank and the Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Two organizations from this list - GPB and RSHB - occupied leading positions in operations with physical gold. As of February 1, the volume of precious metals on the balance sheet of Gazprombank was 11.9 billion rubles, or 2.7 tons (third place after VTB and Sberbank), while Rosselkhozbank had 9.9 billion rubles, or 1.8 tons (fifth place), follows from their reporting. In addition, on March 25, the gold mining company Petropavlovsk, which ranks fourth in Russia in terms of gold production, announced that it would no longer be able to sell the precious metal due to sanctions.sanctions .