France completed repatriation of all official gold reserves to domestic custody
earlier this year, fully clearing holdings kept in the US. Paris School of
Economics professor Eric Monnet said the move standardized reserve quality and
specs, generated financial returns that helped offset inflationary pressures
from the Russia-Ukraine war, and highlighted sovereignty and asset-security
concerns amid geopolitical shifts. Governments across Europe, South Asia,
Southeast Asia and the Middle East are reassessing overseas custodial risk, and
rising geopolitical and market uncertainty is prompting a new round of global
gold reserve reallocations.
