China has bought more than 100 tonnes of gold since trade war

China has already bought more than 100 tonnes of gold since the start of the trade war with the United States. According to the latest figures, the central bank has 190,000 troy ounces of its reserves in September added, converted to 5.9 metric tons. With this purchase, the total gold stock increased to 1,948.36 tons, good for a market value of $93 billion. The precious metal thus represents 2.9% of the central bank's total reserves.

China started buying gold in December and has been adding bullion to its stock every month since. This decision has not done the central bank any harm, because in the same period the Gold price up. Since December, the gold price has risen from $1,281 to more than $1,500 per troy ounce. Together with the purchase of more than 100 tonnes, the total value of the gold reserve rose from $76.3 billion to $93 billion in ten months.

China has already bought more than 100 tonnes of gold since December

China continues to buy gold

China remains Buy gold as a form of diversification. Due to the trade conflict with the United States, the central bank is looking for an alternative to the dollar. Howie Lee, an economist at the Oversea Chinese Banking Corp in Singapore, told him Bloomberg the following about: "Given its troubled relationship with the United States, China needs protection from its sizable dollar reserves. Gold fulfills this function. As China develops into a superpower, we can expect to see more gold purchases."

China is not the only country to add gold to its reserves on a large scale. Russia, Turkey, Kazakhstan, Poland and Hungary have also replenished their stocks recently. In the first half of this year, central banks collectively bought 374.1 tonnes of gold, bringing total demand for physical gold to its highest level in three years. Last year, central banks bought a Record quantity of 650 tonnes. If they continue to buy precious metals at this rate, that record will be broken again in 2019.

The graph below shows that China has been active in the gold market for some time. Since 2015, China's central bank has been reporting monthly figures on its reserves to the IMF, a requirement for including the yuan in the SDR's currency basket. Before that, the country only sporadically released information about its gold reserves. In recent years, the country has become the largest market for gold in the world.

China continues to add gold to reserves