The central government on Wednesday, June 3, rejected a media report claiming that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) sold a significant portion of its gold reserves for safeguarding foreign currency assets amid ongoing tensions in West Asia.
The fact-checking unit of the Press Information Bureau (PIB) has called the assertion as “fake” and added that it is unsupported by official data.
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This comes after an analysis by Bloomberg Economics suggested that the central bank could have offloaded gold worth around $12 billion during the period of geopolitical uncertainty linked to the US and Israel’s conflict with Iran in West Asia.
However, PIB Fact-Check has refuted the claim and highlighted that the official data from the RBI clearly shows a steady increase in the share of gold within India’s foreign exchange reserves and no decline resulting from large-scale sales.
“A news report published by @Bloomberg states that RBI may have sold gold amounting to approximately $12 billion. This claim is FAKE,” it stated.
A news report published by @Bloomberg states that RBI may have sold gold amounting to approximately USD 12 billion.#PIBFactCheck
❌ This claim is FAKE
✔️ According to @RBI, the share of gold in India’s foreign exchange reserves rose from 13.92% at end-September 2025 to 16.70%… pic.twitter.com/eVjxPxEv1i
— PIB Fact Check (@PIBFactCheck) June 3, 2026
Further, it added, “According to @RBI, the share of gold in India’s foreign exchange reserves rose from 13.92% at end-September 2025 to 16.70% on March 31, 2026, and further to 16.85% as of May 22, 2026.”
PIB Fact Check also stated that the physical stock of gold is disclosed by RBI in its monthly bulletin, with its latest edition being available on the RBI website – the status of which remains unchanged as on date.
The Bloomberg report earlier stated that the central bank was estimated to have sold nearly $12 billion worth of gold during the two weeks ending May 22, besides simultaneously purchasing about $7.5 billion in foreign-currency assets. The assessment came from Abhishek Gupta, Senior India Economist at Bloomberg Economics.