Georgia’s Gold Share Slips as Turnava’s 25% Bet Grows Costlier

The National Bank of Georgia’s gold share stood at 14.1% in August, after a June buy of $100 million in bars. Gross reserves reached $8.14 billion that month, and the metal was valued at $1,149.2 million.

President Natia Turnava had told parliament in May she wanted gold at 25% of the book. The June ticket was meant to move that wager. The dollar pile moved faster.

Turnava Told Parliament She Wants Gold at 25%

On 27 May 2026, Turnava went to a plenary session with a simple target. Gold was 16.4% of reserves, or $1.06 billion, against a $6.47 billion total. She said the bank was looking at about $500 million more metal so the share could rise to 25%.

She told lawmakers the 2024 gold decision had already paid. Speaking earlier in May to the Finance and Budget Committee, she called that first purchase “particularly profitable” and said that as foreign exchange inflows stayed strong, “we must proportionally increase the gold portfolio in our total reserves.”

The extra bars, she said, would be funded from profit the central bank had already stored up, not from a fire sale of other reserve assets. The point she kept repeating was time horizon, not the next print.

Due to increased external shocks or unpredictability, gold is an asset that retains its value well in the long term. The price is volatile in the short term, but in the long term, in a 20-25 year perspective, it hedges or insures inflationary risks, which is why we made this decision.

Natia Turnava, President of the National Bank of Georgia, to Parliament

She also said other central banks had made the same turn, some on old stockpiles and some on new buying. “If you look at the statistics, the share of gold in reserves is growing,” she told the chamber. That was the bet: match that shift, and do it while Georgia still had room in a growing book.

The June Purchase Added $100 Million in Bars

Two weeks later the board acted, though not at the scale she had sketched. On 10 June 2026 the NBG said it had purchased an additional $100 million of 999.9 purity LBMA-standard bars for the international reserves.

The bank said the share of monetary gold would then reach 15.5%. Total reserves had already hit a then-record $7.0 billion as of 1 June, equal to 114.8% of the IMF’s Assessing Reserve Adequacy metric.

On 1 June, before that ticket landed, gold was 14.9% of the book and worth $1.04 billion. Reserves were up $842.6 million, or 13.7%, from the start of 2026, including $531.2 million, or 8.2%, in May alone. The $100 million did not need to be large to lift the percentage on a $7.0 billion base. It also was not the $500 million she had floated in May.

Gold accounts treated the notice as proof that a small state was walking away from the dollar. The size of the order cuts against that reading. From January through July the NBG’s net foreign-exchange purchases reached $2,566.6 million. A $100 million gold ticket is 3.9% of that flow. The June bars were a reserve-management choice, not a change in how Georgia actually builds its buffer.

The NBG wrapped the buy in the same three tests it always cites: safety, liquidity, and profitability. It said gold helps a portfolio when geopolitics turns, and that official demand “exhibits low price sensitivity.” It also placed Georgia inside a wider buying wave, saying central banks took over 970 tons in the first quarter of 2026, about 80% of the 1,235 tons it tallied for 2025.

Reserves Hit $8.14 Billion and Gold’s Share Slipped

By August the headline the June statement had sold, 15.5% gold, was already stale. On 7 September the NBG said August gross international reserves had reached an all-time high of $8.14 billion, up 56.4% from a year earlier and up $613 million from July.

The gold line moved too, but on price, not on another announced purchase. Monetary gold rose $135 million month on month to $1,149.2 million “driven by gold price fluctuations.” That was 14.1% of the new pile. The share was lower than the 15.5% the board had just advertised, even though the metal itself was worth more.

Reserve adequacy moved the other way. August holdings stood at 128.2% of the IMF ARA threshold, up from 114.8% in the June notice. The NBG said the stock had doubled compared with October 2024, helped by those $2,566.6 million of net purchases in the first seven months of 2026.

HOW GOLD’S SHARE MOVED INSIDE THE BOOK

The May 16.4% reading was the local high for the share, and it came on a smaller base. May’s $531.2 million reserve jump then diluted gold before the June bars arrived. August repeated the pattern: the metal’s dollar value rose $135 million, the whole book rose $613 million, and the percentage went backwards from the June claim.

Turnava had said gold should rise in proportion as foreign exchange came in. The 2026 arithmetic did not follow that rule. The bank kept buying dollars when the market allowed, which is what a small open economy does when it can. Gold did not keep pace.

Seven Tons Bought on the London Market

Georgia had no monetary gold in the reserve book until 2024. The March board decision, announced on 8 April that year, bought 7 tons of 999.9 bars for $500 million on the London gold bar market, about 11% of reserves at the time. The metal was stored in London, with a plan to move it later into an NBG warehouse at home.

Turnava, then still described as acting president, called it a first for independent Georgia. The bank said a record $1.5 billion of domestic FX purchases the year before had created room to swap some of that cash into metal.

We’ve made a historic decision for independent Georgia by adding monetary gold to our foreign exchange reserves. Our approach is to consistently bolster our international reserves as they serve as the safety cushion of our country’s economy.

Natia Turnava, National Bank of Georgia, 8 April 2024

Not everyone in Tbilisi liked the trade. PMC Research Centre’s 2024 economic-climate survey found 58% of the economists it polled disapproved of the 7-ton purchase and 42% approved. The mark-to-market result then ran the other way. The same $500 million parcel was worth $1.06 billion by late May 2026, which is why Turnava could tell parliament the first ticket had been profitable and ask for another.

That London vault still sits in the original notice. A geopolitical hedge that lives in London is a hedge with a jurisdiction attached, which is the objection the June gold chatter kept returning to when it was not cheering the headline. The NBG has not, in the June or August 2026 statements, said the bars have been brought home.

THE GOLD PROGRAM SINCE 2024

1. 1 March 2024: The NBG Board decides to buy 7 tons of 999.9 monetary gold.
2. 8 April 2024: The bank announces the $500 million London purchase, about 11% of reserves, stored in London.
3. 27 May 2026: Turnava tells parliament gold is 16.4% of a $6.47 billion book and that about $500 million more could take the share to 25%.
4. 10 June 2026: The board buys $100 million of LBMA bars and says the gold share will reach 15.5% of $7.0 billion.
5. 7 September 2026: The August print shows $8.14 billion of reserves and $1,149.2 million of gold, 14.1% of the total.

On 12 June 2026, two days after the second purchase, Turnava told a Shanghai symposium hosted by the People’s Bank of China and the Bank for International Settlements that gold had already lifted the yield on Georgia’s international reserves. Safety, she said, had become the first of the three reserve tests. That is the case for holding the metal. It is not a case that the share is heading to 25% on the present buying pace.

Poland’s Gold Book Dwarfs Georgia’s 7.8 Tonnes

World Gold Council country data put Georgia at 7.8 tonnes in July, 13.5% of reserves. That stock is the 2024 seven tons plus the June add, marked at then-market prices. It is a real book. It is also small next to the European names Turnava is, in share terms, trying to resemble.

Poland held 640.2 tonnes, 28.2% of its reserves, and has a public 700-tonne target. Hungary held 110.0 tonnes, 20.7%. The Czech Republic held 84.1 tonnes, only 6.0% of a larger FX pile, after a long monthly buying run. Georgia’s 25% target is a Poland-style share on a Tbilisi-sized tonnage. Hitting the percentage is a dollar decision. Matching the tonnes is not on the table.

The same council’s 2026 reserve-manager survey, with 76 responses, found that 89 percent expect global gold reserves to rise over the next 12 months. A record 45% expected their own gold holdings to rise. Seventy-four percent saw moderate or significantly lower US dollar holdings in global reserves over five years. Central banks have added about 1,000 tonnes a year over the past four years, against about 500 tonnes a year in the decade before that.

Georgia fits the survey more than it fits the Polish balance sheet. It is a late, small buyer in a market where official demand has already re-rated the metal. The June statement even leaned on that demand as a price floor. The cost of finishing Turnava’s 25% line is set in that market, not in the 2024 London print.

A 25 Percent Share Would Now Be $2.035 Billion

Hold the August pile constant and the remaining math is blunt. Twenty-five percent of $8.14 billion is $2.035 billion. Gold was $1,149.2 million. The gap is $885.8 million, which is larger than the about $500 million extra Turnava described in May against a $6.47 billion book.

If the June $100 million is counted as the first slice of that $500 million plan, about $400 million would still be unused. Add $400 million of gold and leave the rest of the book unchanged, and the share would still miss 25%. The target was priced on last spring’s pile. The pile is the thing that grew.

WHAT 25 PERCENT WOULD REQUIRE ON THE AUGUST BOOK

• The target value: 25% of $8.14 billion equals $2.035 billion of monetary gold.
• The gap: $2.035 billion minus $1,149.2 million leaves $885.8 million of gold still to buy or convert, if the total book does not grow again.
• The leftover plan: About $400 million remaining from the May $500 million sketch would not close that gap on an $8.14 billion base.

The NBG said it will keep looking at diversification “aligned with its long-term objectives and international best practices.” It also said it adds foreign exchange whenever the market and the macro picture allow, which is how the book reached $8.14 billion in the first place. Those two habits now pull in opposite directions on the gold percentage.

The next gross reserve figures are due on 7 October 2026. That print will show whether gold’s share moved, or whether the dollar side of the book ran ahead again.

Disclaimer: This article is news reporting and analysis of National Bank of Georgia reserve figures and public statements. It is for information only and is not investment, trading, or financial advice, and it is not a recommendation to buy or sell gold or any other asset. Readers who are considering a metal or currency position should speak with a qualified investment adviser who can assess their own circumstances. The figures and policy targets here reflect the cited central-bank and World Gold Council publications as dated in the piece and can change with later prints, prices, and board decisions.