The acceptance of gold as a reserve requirement held by Turkish banks led to a rise of holdings of the yellow metal. In November, Turkey added 63 tonnes of gold, which boosted the purchase of gold by 41.3 per cent. It was the largest increase in gold buys that month.

In October, Turkey also boosted its gold stock by 21.7 per cent. Besides Turkey, the only country that increased significantly purchase of the safe haven metal is Korea by 15 per cent, according to the World Gold Council (WGC) report released on Tuesday.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) data showed that the Turkish central bank hiked its gold reserves to 5.758 million ounces in November from 4.429 million ounces in October.

Besides the two countries, Russia also continued to accumulate gold by boosting its holding of the yellow metal to 81,000 ounces. With the latest addition, the country's gold reserves had gone up 11 per cent compared to the start of 2011.

With Turkey's addition of more gold holdings, the country is the 22nd largest holder of the precious metal in the world with a total of 179.1 tonnes of gold which comprises 10.6 per cent of the country's reserves.

The U.S. continues to be the largest holder of gold with 8,133.5 tonnes in its possession, which is 76.9 per cent of the country's reserve requirements. It is followed by Germany (3,396.3 gtonnes), the IMF (2,814.1 tonnes), Italy (2,451.8 tonnes) and France (2,435.4 tonnes), according to the latest WGC report.

The Turkish Central Bank announced on Oct 24, 2011 the new policy that allowed up to 10 per cent gold holdings of the reserve requirements for lira liabilities to strengthen the country's build-up of gold reserves and provide more flexibility in the country's banking system's liquidity management.

Based on the new policy, about $3.5 billion worth of 55 tons of gold would be maintained by the Turkish Central Bank.

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