Italy is the third country in the world for gold reserveswith a heritage that is around 2,452 tons of gold and an estimated value which, according to current prices, exceeds 300 billion euros – about the 13% of GDP Italian. Almost all of these reserves are made up of gold bars, kept partly in the Rome headquarters of the Bank of Italy and partly in foreign countries such as the United States, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
Gold reserves primarily serve one function strategic-financial for the economic stability of a country: gold, in fact, is considered a “safe haven”, which maintains its value even in times of crisis, does not depend on governments or currencies and protects against inflation. Also for this reason, gold reserves are not used to repay public debt.
Let’s see the ranking of the top 10 countries in the world for gold reserves, which sees the first two positions United States And Germany.
The ranking of the top 10 countries in the world for gold reserves: Italy on the podium
In short, the main function of gold reserves is to act as “stabilizer” of risk in a state’s financial portfolio. In other words, such large quantities of gold allow a country to strengthen investor confidence on their financial stability – especially during periods of economic crisis – and ensure liquidity in case of default.
In the world ranking of gold reserves, Italy is positioned as the third country globally, falling to fourth place if the reserves of International Monetary Fund (IMF). Above us only the United States, with approx 8,133 tonsand Germany, with approx 3,355 tons.
Much of the Italian gold reserve, approximately 95.47%is made up of gold bars, while the remaining part is made up of coins. Our gold reserves are not held exclusively in Italy: 44.86% (1,100 tons) is actually kept in the vault of the Bank of Italy in Rome, the 43.29% (1,061.5 tons) is deposited in the United States, the 6.09% (149.3 tonnes) is located in Switzerland and the remainder 5.76% (141.2 tonnes) is stored in the United Kingdom.
Our country, among other things, is home to several gold deposits in Monte Rosanow abandoned due to their size and inaccessibility.
Because gold reserves are not used to repay public debt
As anticipated, with the current gold prices, the value of the Italian gold reserve exceeds 300 billion euroswhich correspond to approximately 13% of our GDP. At this point it may be natural to ask: with a public debt that in August 2025 reached i 3,082 billion euros according to data provided by the Bank of Italy, why isn’t part of the Italian gold reserve used to partially repay the debt?
The answer is linked to what we said previously: the gold held by the Bank of Italy (the institution that manages these reserves) is a strategic asset which acts as a guarantee for the financial stability and international credibility of our country. Its primary function, therefore, is that of guarantee the economic solidity of Italy, not that of financing the state budget.
At the same time, we must also consider the possible repercussions on gold market: selling approximately 2,452 tons of gold to obtain the capital necessary to repay the public debt would obviously destabilize the global gold market, which would therefore be flooded with an enormous quantity of this precious metal. By the economic law of scarcity, this would immediately cause a cgold price rolleffectively canceling the expected profit from this sale.
Among other things, even if our country were to choose to invest all its gold reserves to reduce public debt, this operation would only cover a minority fraction of the debt: the effect, therefore, would not only be temporarybut it would also involve the loss of a fundamental guaranteewithout solving the structural problem of public debt.
