BUDAPEST, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- The Hungarian National Bank (MNB) increased the gold reserves of Hungary by ten times, to its historical level of more than 30 tons, according to official sources here on Wednesday.
"The central bank's precious metal stock rose from the previous 3.1 tons to 31.5 tons, valued at around 1.24 billion U.S. dollars," MNB announced in an official statement. "With the increase, the ratio of gold reached 4.4 percent of the total reserves," MNB added.
This ratio corresponds to the average of the neighboring countries that are not members of the euro-zone. Hungary is a member of the EU since 2004, but not yet a member of the euro-zone.
MNB bought gold for the first time since 1986, the purchase and the transportation of the gold to Hungary had taken place in the first half of October, according to the central bank.
"Financial markets welcomed the decision to increase gold reserves," expert Gergely Juhasz, CEO of Conclude Investments said, following the transaction.
The value of gold is on the rise, according to an analyst who did not rule out further acquisitions of gold by MNB in the future.
