The main reason reserve managers have sharply increased their gold holdings over the past few years is an attempt to diversify away from negative returns, reserves experts say.

If anything, this post-financial crisis trend has been accelerated by Covid-19, said panellists at Central Banking’s National Asset-Liability Management (Nalm) Asia virtual event on September 15.

A survey conducted by Invesco earlier this year shows that over 60% of central banks expect gold allocations to rise over the