New Delhi, June 19 -- One manifestation of the trust deficit faced by the world that Prime Minister Narendra Modi referred to at the G7 meeting this week in France shines out: gold purchases by central banks.

In the last four years, an increasing number of them, including India's, have brought their gold back home from vaults in New York and London, according to a survey of such reserves by the World Gold Council.

Of the survey's 74 respondents, 9% said they had increased domestic storage over the past 12 months, up from 5% the previous year. Another 10% reported having diversified their overseas vault locations, up from 2%.

Geopolitical factors appear to be behind this trend, which gained force after the US seizure of Russian assets i...