Poland Gold Reserves to Rise Under Governor Glapinski's Watch

Poland’s central bank wants to buy at least 100 tons of gold in the coming years to demonstrate the country’s economic strength, Governor Adam Glapinski said.

Making a bid for a second term at the helm of the central bank, Glapinski told government-friendly Sieci weekly on Monday that the amount of gold in reserves more than doubled to 229 tons under his watch. The new holdings will be stored in Poland, he said.

“This matters, among other things, for how the country is perceived,” Glapinski, whose six-year term ends in June 2022, told Sieci.

Glapinski has consistently argued in favor of boosting gold holdings, saying in January that their share in the central bank’s reserves should rise to 20% during his next term from 9% now.

The institution bought about 126 tons of bullion in 2018 and 2019. It also repatriated about 100 tons from Bank of England vaults.

After the pandemic started last year, the institution launched a quantitative-easing program and cut interest rates to near-zero.

Glapinski reiterated that the chances of Polish rates changing “are close to zero,” and once pandemic is over the economy will grow at a pace of 5% a year or even higher.

The central bank could assist with financing the government’s plan to build a nuclear power station, and he said his job leading the economy out of the crisis isn’t done, he said.

“Let me be straight: I want to bid for a second term as the governor of the National Bank of Poland,” he told the weekly. “Two terms are a natural period for institutions that require some continuity.”