The move came as Beijing attempts to further diversify its reserves at a time of mounting geopolitical risks and lingering doubts over the long-term stability of assets backed by the US dollar.
China’s foreign exchange regulator said the country’s gold holdings rose to 74.02 million ounces at the end of August, an increase of 60,000 ounces from July. The jump helped push Comex gold futures to US$3,639.8 an ounce on Sunday, up 37.9 per cent this year.
Compared to the previous month, China’s gold reserves rose by US$9.9 billion to US$253.8 billion in August, raising their share of the country’s total foreign exchange reserves by 0.23 percentage points to a record 7.64 per cent.
Tavi Costa, a macro strategist at Crescat Capital, posted last week on his LinkedIn account that “foreign central banks now officially hold more gold than US Treasuries for the first time since 1996,” calling the shift “likely the beginning of one of the most significant global rebalancings we’ve experienced in recent history.”
In a June survey, 95 per cent of the central banks polled by the council said they expected global gold reserves to increase over the next 12 months – the highest share since the annual canvass began in 2019 – and 43 per cent said they would increase their stocks.
