Skopje, 2 December 2025  

As part of the official visit to the Bank of England, the National Bank Governor, Dr. Trajko Slaveski, together with his team, had the exclusive opportunity to tour the Bank of England’s gold vault, where the Republic of North Macedonia keeps its monetary gold reserves. The Governor and his team inspected the gold reserves and the storage conditions in the vault. The inspections are part of the usual activities of central banks for ensuring the highest safety and security standards in storing monetary gold. 

The National Bank of the Republic of North Macedonia’s foreign reserves include approximately 6.9 tons of monetary gold, with a current market value of approximately EUR 800 million. The Bank of England provides safe custody for the gold in an allocated form, which consists of marked gold bars that fully meet the London Bullion Market standards (London Good Delivery Standard bars with a minimum fineness of 99.5% purity or a weight of approximately 400 troy ounces, or 12.4 kg). The decision to keep the monetary gold at the Bank of England was made in 2010, given the security and flexibility of the central bank's infrastructure, as well as the accessibility to the London market as the largest bullion market worldwide.

Further to our request to the Bank of England, a sample of gold bars owned by the Republic of North Macedonia was selected and presented. The Governor and his team of experts visually inspected the sample and confirmed that the serial numbers and the physical appearance correspond to the standard specifications.

Meeting the high standards and accessibility to the LBM participants allows gold, under favorable market conditions, besides its great price appreciation, to be used for generating additional monetary income through placements of short-term deposits and concluding gold transactions with central and highly rated foreign banks.

The Bank of England’s gold vault houses one of the largest gold reserves in the world. The Bank of England’s vaults hold more than 400,000 bars of gold worth billions of pounds. The gold is stored carefully under the highest security standards. The UK government, banks and other governments around the world are allowed to keep gold at the Bank of England[1].

The National Bank remains committed to transparent, efficient and accountable management of foreign and gold reserves in support of the stability and economic development of the country.