Portugal's central bank shows its gold

Portugal has the 14th largest gold reserve in the world, the value of which is equivalent to 10% of the country's GDP. Recently, the Central Bank of Portugal presented its gold bars to the public.

The vault of the country's main financial institution is located in the small town of Carregado near Lisbon. The 67 square meter building holds 382.6 tons of gold, or 45% of the country's total gold reserves. The remaining 55% of the yellow metal stock is overseas, mostly at the Bank of England in London.

The Portuguese gold storage complex opened in 1995. It is protected by alarms and surveillance cameras, and code locks are installed on the doors. The facility is guarded by armed police officers. In the vault behind the armored doors, gold bars weighing 12 kg each are stacked on hundreds of shelves. Only three employees have access to the vault. They can open the doors using the code on the swivel handle and rotate the two keys. After that, the fourth employee remotely enters another code from the control room and the storage doors open.

Elder Rosalino, a member of the board of the Bank of Portugal, told the following media representatives at the storage presentation ceremony: "Gold is an important asset for central banks, since it has no credit risks and provides reliable protection for countries from bankruptcy. Since 1999, the value of Portuguese gold reserves has increased by 16.8 billion euros. Last year alone, the figure increased by 4.3%, amounting to about 19.8 billion euros. The increase in the value of gold reserves in 2021 was due to the strengthening of the dollar against the euro. Gold in Portugal is valued in American currency. "