Indian household gold higher than gold reserves of world's top 10 central banks: Assocham

India’s households now hold more gold than the combined reserves of the world’s top 10 central banks, creating what industry body Assocham describes as a “hidden support” and potential growth engine for the Indian economy.

India’s household gold stock has surged in value following the sharp rally in gold prices through 2024-25 and early 2026, pushing it ahead of the gold hoards held by the largest reserve-owning central banks such as the US, Germany and China, Assocham said in a press release.

How much gold India owns

According to World Gold Council data cited in the note, India’s official gold reserves stand at 880.3 tonnes, ranking eighth globally and amounting to just over one-tenth of America’s 8,133.5 tonnes, but the private stockpile in Indian homes and temples far exceeds any single country’s official holdings.

Drawing on multiple institutional estimates, Assocham highlighted that the value of gold held by Indian households is now widely pegged in the multi-trillion-dollar range.

Kotak Institutional Equities estimates that surging prices have lifted the value of household gold beyond $5 trillion as of January 2026, equivalent to roughly 125 per cent of India’s GDP, with gold now accounting for nearly 65 per cent of households’ non-property wealth and about 175 per cent of the combined value of their bank deposits and equity holdings.

A separate Assocham-linked study titled “Gold’s New Horizon” points to an even larger pool, stating that “India's households and temples together hold an estimated 50,000 tonnes of gold – valued at roughly USD 10 trillion – largely outside the formal financial system,” a figure attributed to National Stock Exchange executive Sriram Krishnan.

Other global and domestic institutions cited by Assocham arrive at similarly staggering numbers, even on more conservative assumptions.

The World Gold Council estimates Indian household and temple holdings at around 25,000 tonnes with an approximate value of 2.4 trillion dollars, equivalent to almost 56 per cent of India’s projected nominal GDP in 2026. IIFL puts the market value of 25,000 tonnes of household gold at close to 80 per cent of GDP, describing it as “propping up” the economy and acting as a “shock absorber,” while Morgan Stanley estimates Indian households’ gold wealth at 3.8 trillion dollars, or about 89 per cent of GDP, and UBS at 4.5 trillion dollars for around 28,000 tonnes, representing about 14 per cent of global gold stock.

What India's gold reserves mean for economy

Assocham argued that this vast pool of idle wealth, larger in value than the annual GDP of almost every country except the US and China, needs to be systematically channelled into the formal economy to unlock its full macroeconomic impact. “Such a huge amount of gold can provide great strength to the Indian economy when channelled into the financial system,” the chamber said, adding that the stock of privately held gold represents “one of the largest pools of household financial wealth.”
The industry body underlined the “macroeconomic significance” of even a gradual shift of a portion of this gold into financialised channels such as monetisation schemes, collateralised lending and gold-linked savings instruments, to support manufacturing, infrastructure and agriculture.

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Laying out a roadmap, Assocham contended that mobilising just a sliver of this hoard could materially change India’s long-term growth trajectory. “Even if 2% of household gold holdings are channelled into financial assets every year, the 40% of total gold holdings in financial assets by 2047 will add an additional USD 7.5 trillion to India’s GDP by 2047 through the multiplier effect,” the release said. With India’s GDP in 2047 estimated at around 34 trillion dollars based on the median of various forecasts, this incremental contribution would lift the total to about 41.5 trillion dollars, Assocham projected.

The press note also linked rising gold prices to a pronounced wealth effect on Indian households, arguing that the recent appreciation has improved balance sheets and helped spur consumption and investment. “Recent gains in gold prices increased the value of the household's gold holdings, providing a positive wealth effect on the household's balance sheet,” it said, adding that this “golden appreciation of wealth boosts consumption, expands manufacturing capacity, and increases the deployment of more workers in businesses.”

As India remains the world’s largest consumer of gold jewellery, with demand for bars and coins also having risen sharply over the past five years, the chamber said the metal’s role in domestic wealth and spending dynamics is only deepening.

Some of the stock has already begun to find its way into productive uses via the rapid expansion of gold-backed lending, Assocham noted. In 2025-26, up to November 2025, loans against gold and jewellery amounted to 24.34 lakh crore rupees (about 26 billion dollars), reflecting growing acceptance of gold loans beyond their traditional base and positioning them as a mainstream retail credit product.

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The chamber said gold loans have the potential “to expand beyond traditional strongholds and attract a more diverse range of credit-profile consumers,” emphasising that further deepening of such instruments, alongside more robust monetisation schemes, could significantly enhance gold’s economic productivity.