SBI Research reported a 50% surge in global gold prices in 2025, boosting RBI’s reserves but weakening domestic demand. Highlighting India’s 86% import dependence, the bank urged a national gold policy to manage structural risks and promote long-term economic stability.
Driven by a price increase and calls for thorough policy change, the gold market in 2025 has become front and centre in India’s economic story. Following geopolitical unrest and a weakening U.S. dollar, global gold prices have soared more than 50% year-to-date, according to a recent State Bank of India (SBI) Research study called “Coming of (a Turbulent) Age: The Great Global Gold Rush”.
After almost $25 billion last year, this rise has turned into a great rise in the value of the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) gold reserves
One of the main sources of policy attention is India’s great reliance on imported gold. According to the State Bank of India’s analysis, around 86% of the domestic gold supply in 2024 was imported, a structural dependency that connects bullion price fluctuations to outside vulnerabilities, including pressure on the rupee. Against this backdrop, SBI is pressing the government to adopt a national gold policy, a long-term, strategic framework that determines whether gold is treated as a commodity or as money. It clarifies how it is stored/traded, and examines ways like gold-backed pension plans, monetisation of household gold holdings, and greater integration with financial sector reforms.
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The report claims that such a strategy is long overdue. India’s approach has concentrated for years on short-term demand management (such as through import taxes or recycling incentives) without considering bigger structural issues. On the other hand, China already has a more organized strategy for gold within a national context.
