Poland’s central bank decided to increase its gold reserves to 700 tonnes, the National Bank of Poland (NBP) Governor Adam Glapiński said on January 20.

“The National Bank of Poland has decided to further increase gold reserves to 700 tonnes. As a result, Poland will be among the elite group of the ten countries with the largest gold holdings in the world,” Glapiński said in a statement.

The announcement updates comments made by the NBP governor last week, when he said the central bank planned to raise gold holdings from the current 550 tonnes and would seek formal approval from the management board to do so.

The NBP’s gold holdings were valued at some $76.5bn (€65.3bn) at the end of 2025.

The move comes amid a sustained rise in global gold prices, which has increased the metal’s weight in the NBP’s reserve portfolio. Gold price has risen nearly 77% y/y as of January 21, adding 2.3% on the day.

Glapiński previously said the value of gold holdings had risen close to the central bank’s long-term target of 30% of total reserves, prompting a revision of the nominal volume target.

The NBP has not specified a timetable for reaching the 700-tonne level.

Poland began restructuring the composition of its official reserves in 2018, when the central bank resumed gold purchases after decades of inactivity. Prior to that shift, Poland’s gold holdings had remained unchanged at 102 tonnes and accounted for roughly 3-5% of total reserves.

The policy aligned Poland with a broader trend among emerging-market central banks, which have been steadily increasing gold holdings since the global financial crisis. Countries including China, Russia, India, Turkey and Kazakhstan have expanded their reserves over the past decade.

Within the European Union, Poland was among the first countries in nearly 20 years to adopt this approach, alongside Hungary, reversing a long period during which Western central banks largely refrained from large-scale gold accumulation.