By Giselda Vagnoni

ROME (Reuters) -Italy, whose sovereign assets from bonds to banks have so often been the subject of market crises in recent years, is currently enjoying a windfall as the central bank’s vast gold reserves track record-high prices.

The country’s bullion stockpile reflects decades of determined safeguarding after it rebuilt reserves plundered by the Nazis in the 1940s, and a stance that has seen it resist calls to sell through repeated crises and as its national debt soared.

The Bank of Italy now sits on the world’s third-largest national gold stockpile, behind only the U.S. and Germany. Its 2,452 metric tons of gold are worth an estimated $300 billion at current prices, roughly 13% of 2024 national output, Reuters calculations show.

WARTIME SEIZURES SHAPE PEACETIME PO

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