When China originally reentered the official gold market back in 2015 they announced an increase of approximately 600 tons in one month! Obviously, China had been acquiring gold and keeping it “off-book” until they felt the time was right to announce a new level of official gold holdings. Remember, China wanted to get into the IMF’s SDR basket of currency, and in order to do so, they had to hold a certain amount of gold. Why? Because gold is money.
China reentered the gold in July 2015 when they had previously held 1,054 tons of gold. This ended six years of speculation about how much gold China had acquired. China remained in the gold market until October 2016, the same month the RMB (renminbi / yuan) was added to the IMF’ SDR basket of currencies – mission accomplished, we’re out of the official gold market. China would remain away from the gold market until December 2018. They have now been adding to their official gold for the previous 10 months and we now have the latest report.
China added to its gold holdings for the tenth month running in September, sending total yellow bullion reserves to 100 tonnes since resuming its purchases last December, Bloomberg reported.
The People’s Bank of China (PBoC) raised gold’s reserves to 62.64 million ounces last September, up from 62.45 million ounces in August, putting the country’s holdings of the precious metal at nearly $93 billion.
In tonnage terms, the PBoC’s latest addition came in at 5.9 tonnes, which follows around 99.8 tonnes over the preceding nine months.
Gold hit its highest level since more than six years ago last month, as growth slowdown fears, flaring trade conflict and monetary easing have boosted safe-haven demand among investors.
Central banks have been also major buyers of the bullion, most specifically in emerging market economies.
“Given strained relations with the US, China needs a hedge against its large holdings of the dollar, and gold serves that function,” OCBC Bank economist Howie Lee was quoted by Bloomberg.
China’s accumulation of gold came amid a global spree of gold purchases. In the six months to June, central banks worldwide bought 374.1 tonnes, the World Gold Council (WGC) said.
Gold prices declined on Monday as the US dollar firmed against rivals after a report saying that China was reluctant to agree to a broad deal with the US.
By 11:39 am GMT, spot gold fell by 0.40% to $1,498.63 per ounce, while US gold futures dropped by 0.58% to $1,504.20 per ounce. Source
Previously, China had reentered the gold market for 16 months then dropped out for 14 months. Does China have another 6 months of gold acquisitions up her sleeve or is China back in the market to stay? Time will tell and come May 2020, or sooner, we will have our answer. Until then we will continue to keep you posted on the ever changing world of China gold.
