The central banks of Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan continued to increase their stockpiles of gold in December, as the metal's price dropped to six-month lows.

Kazakhstan's central bank raised its official gold reserves 77,000 troy ounces last month, to 4.6 million ounces, according to data Tuesday from the International Monetary Fund.

Azerbaijan added 32,000 ounces to its now 644,000-ounce reserve—which a year earlier had stood at almost nil.

The central banks of Belarus and Ukraine were also active buyers last month, lifting their individual reserves by 28,000 ounces and 20,000 ounces, respectively.

Central banks, largely in developing economies, have increased their gold holdings over the past few years as debt crises have put pressure on reserve currencies, such as the U.S. dollar and the euro.

Last month's purchases appear to have been overshadowed, though, by a possible drop in the official reserves of Russia's central bank, one of the largest owners of gold bullion.

The central bank holdings of Russia, which has been a regular buyer of gold in recent years, fell to 30.2 million ounces in December, the IMF figures show.

This number is at odds, however, with data from the bank itself, which last week reported end-of-year gold reserves of 33.3 million ounces.

The IMF figures suggest emerging markets remain committed to bolstering their gold reserves, although central-bank demand for gold slowed last year as prices became more volatile—breaking a bull run that had lasted more than a decade—and emerging-market currencies weakened.

Turkey's central bank reported an increase of more than 430,000 ounces to the IMF, taking its official reserves to 16.7 million ounces.

Some analysts say a central-bank decision to start accepting gold as collateral from commercial banks in late 2011 has been the main cause of a sustained rise in the country's precious-metal holdings.

ANN.Az