Sergio Goncalves, Pedro Nunes

LISBON (Reuters – Portugal’s central banks has allowed a glimpse into the vaults of its highly guarded vaults located in a tiny town close to Lisbon. This gives a rare insight into where some of Portugal’s vast gold reserves are.

Carregado’s 67,000-square-metre compound houses an ultrasecure vault in which 45% of the Bank of Portugal keeps 382.6 tonnes of Gold. 55% of the remaining funds are located abroad. They are mainly at Bank of England, London.

Helder Rosalino of Bank of Portugal, who was accompanied by an armed police officer on Tuesday said that “gold is an important asset to central banks because it is a refuge assets and has no credit risk.”

It was opened in 1995 and is now protected by surveillance cameras and alarms. The complex’s multiple doors are equipped with keypad locks, which have evolved over time.

They are stored on shelves on hundreds of shelves behind armored doors in an underground vault. The 12 kg (26.46lb) gold bars can be found stacked. The vault is only accessible by three employees. They can be opened by entering a code using a rotary knob.

Rosalino stated that the Portuguese’s gold reserves have increased in value by 16.8 billion Euros since 1999 when the official creation of the euro currency. This rose to approximately 19.8 Billion euros, an increase of 4.3% in the last year.

According to him, the increase in 2021 was caused by the appreciation of US dollars against the euro. The price of gold is in U.S. Dollars.

Portugal holds the 14th largest reserve of gold in the world. Its value is equivalent to nearly 10% the country’s gross national product.