Lisbon, May 26, 2025 (Lusa) - The gold held by the Bank of Portugal (BdP) was worth €31 billion at the end of 2024, 34% more than in 2023, according to the 2024 Monetary Policy Implementation Report released on Monday.
In 2024, the Bank of Portugal's gold holdings increased in value by €8 billion compared to €23 billion in the previous year, “exclusively as a result of sharp price increases throughout the year”.
Gold is considered a safe haven asset in times of uncertainty, with the price per ounce reaching historic highs.
Also according to the Monetary Policy Implementation Report, gold was a major factor in the Bank of Portugal's balance sheet increasing by 3% to €191 billion in 2024.
At the end of last year, according to the BdP Board of Directors' Report, the central bank held 382.7 tonnes of gold.
In a list compiled by the World Gold Council, Portugal had the sixth largest gold reserves in Western Europe at the end of 2024 (behind Germany, Italy, France, Switzerland and the Netherlands).
The gold reserves are kept in the vault of the BdP's high-security complex in Carregado, north of Lisbon and also in London.
Portuguese gold was much talked about during the 2011 crisis, when it was considered an indirect guarantee for Portugal's debt.
In 2024, in an interview with SIC TV, the then administrator of the BdP, Hélder Rosalino, confirmed this: "In the 2011-2014 “troika” programme, international creditors had a very direct relationship with the Bank of Portugal and, naturally, what they were shown regarding our gold reserves was important. It is not a direct guarantee, but there is a confidence that is given to international operators."
The origin of Portugal's gold reserves was controversial 30 years ago, leading to the creation of an independent commission which concluded that the Salazar dictatorship was unaware of the provenance of the gold acquired from Nazi Germany.
During World War II, Portugal received gold as payment for exports to Germany, namely tungsten, which was essential for the German war machine.
In the late 1990s, in the wake of the global public debate on assets looted by the Nazis, an official commission chaired by former president and prime minister Mário Soares was set up in April 1998 to investigate ‘gold transactions between the Portuguese and German authorities during the period 1936-1945’.
According to the report available on the website of the General Secretariat of the Ministry of Finance, the gold reserves of the Bank of Portugal were 65 tonnes in 1939 and increased to 306 tonnes in 1945. The increase amounted to 320 tonnes if all the gold held by the State was included.
The report concluded that the gold was acquired "in return for legitimate trade [with Germany], known and accepted by the Allies", and that the main source of the gold, the Swiss National Bank, was "at the time above suspicion".
The report states that, even during the war, the Allies were aware of the shipment of gold to Portugal and did not raise any issues.
It also mentions the agreement that Portugal made in 1950 with the Tripartite Commission (representing countries with claims on the looted gold) to return four tonnes, as a symbolic gesture, considering it a "gesture of goodwill".
In short, according to the commission, "the known facts do not provide grounds for considering that the Portuguese government at the time can be accused of knowingly receiving gold looted by the Nazis during the Second World War", and therefore Portugal does not owe "any additional compensation".
The report's conclusions were contested by several historians and Holocaust scholars.
Portuguese reserves reached a record 606.76 tonnes in 2002. Between then and 2006, when former economy minister Vítor Constâncio was governor of the central bank, Portugal sold more than 200 tonnes of gold.
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