According to the World Gold Council’s “Gold Demand Trends” report, total gold demand stood at its highest level in 2023 at 4,898.8 tons, up from 4,751.9 tons in 2022. Excluding Over-the-Counter and stock flows, however, gold demand came in lower in 2023 at 4,448.4 tons when compared to the level of 4,699.0 tons reported in 2022. The report added that central banks’ demand, a primary driver of gold in the last couple of years, exceeded 1,000 tons for the second year in a row. More specifically, gold purchases by central banks stood at 1,037.4 tons in 2023, compared to 1,081.9 tons in 2022. According to the World Gold Council, central banks have been consistently buying gold since 2010 aggregating to more than 7,800 tons, with more than a quarter of the purchases taking place in 2022 and 2023.

From another perspective, the World Gold Council provided a list of the official gold holdings of 100 countries for the year 2023 where the United States topped the list with the largest gold reserves of 8,133.46 tons (representing 69.89% of its central bank reserves), followed by Germany (3,352.65 tons; 69.06% of central bank reserves), the International Monetary Fund (2,814.04 tons), Italy (2,451.84 tons; 65.89% of central bank reserves) and France (2,436.97 tons; 67.28% of central bank reserves).

In the MENA region, Saudi Arabia occupied the first place among 17 MENA countries and the 16^th position in the world with its gold reserves standing at 323.07 tons by end of 2023 (4.24% of its central bank reserves), followed by Lebanon (global rank: 19^th; 286.83 tons; 54.45% of central bank reserves) and Algeria (global rank: 25^th; 173.56 tons; 14.26% of central bank reserves). On the bottom end of the spectrum, Oman came in 15^th regionally and 90^th globally in terms of gold reserves (1.88 tons; 0.62% of central bank reserves), followed by Yemen (global rank: 92^nd; 1.56 tons; 8.75% of central bank reserves) and Mauritania (global rank: 97^th; 1.02 tons; 3.05% of central bank reserves).