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Central banks enter the gold trade to choke off smuggling
By Leslie Hook
Financial Times, London
Thursday, January 1, 2026
In the African island nation of Madagascar, central bank governor Aivo Andrianarivelo has an unusual mission: to end gold smuggling.
Madagascar produces as much as 20 tonnes of gold per year, he estimates, worth about $2.8 billion at today's prices, but almost all of that leaves the country illegally, robbing state coffers of tax revenues and foreign exchange.
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"The criminal gangs, they have aircraft, helicopters, very sophisticated means of transportation," said Andrianarivelo in an interview with the Financial Times. "Our strategy is to reduce the gold trafficking business in Madagascar."
The island nation is one of a growing number of countries where central banks and finance ministries are starting to get more involved in domestic gold trading and to run local buying programmes, in an effort to disrupt illicit gold flows. ...
... For the remainder of the report:
https://www.ft.com/content/3c6ae84a-133e-4ea2-8660-96c875205294
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