The National Bank of Georgia has purchased an additional $100mn worth of highest purity gold bars for its international reserves, lifting the share of monetary gold in its reserves to 15.5% and pushing total reserves to a record $7.0bn, equivalent to 114.8% of the IMF's reserve adequacy benchmark. The move is part of Georgia's broader reserve diversification strategy, but it also reflects a much larger global pattern. Central banks worldwide purchased over 970 tons of gold in the first quarter of 2026 alone, representing roughly 80% of total acquisitions across all of 2025, which itself totalled 1,235 tons. Aggregate ... (full story)