New Delhi, June 3 : The Central government on Wednesday firmly rejected claims that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had sold a significant portion of its gold reserves to safeguard foreign currency assets amid tensions in West Asia, describing the assertion as "fake" and unsupported by official data.

The clarification came in response to an analysis by Bloomberg Economics, which suggested that the RBI may have offloaded gold worth approximately $12 billion during a period of heightened geopolitical uncertainty linked to the Iran-US conflict in West Asia.

Refuting the report, the government's fact-checking arm under the Press Information Bureau (PIB) said official RBI data showed a steady increase in the share of gold within India's foreign exchange reserves rather than any decline resulting from large-scale sales.

"According to RBI, the share of gold in India's foreign exchange reserves rose from 13.92 per cent at end-September 2025 to 16.70 per cent on March 31, 2026, and further to 16.85 per cent as of May 22, 2026," the PIB's Fact Check Unit stated.

The government further pointed out that the RBI regularly publishes information relating to its physical gold holdings through its Monthly Bulletin and said the stock position remained unchanged.

"The physical stock of gold is also disclosed by RBI in its Monthly Bulletin. The latest edition is available on the RBI website. The status remains unchanged as on date," the PIB said.

The Bloomberg report claimed that the RBI was estimated to have sold nearly $12 billion worth of gold during the two weeks ending May 22 while simultaneously purchasing around $7.5 billion in foreign-currency assets.

The assessment was made by Abhishek Gupta, Senior India Economist at Bloomberg Economics.

However, the Central government dismissed that interpretation, citing official reserve data released by the RBI.

/IANS