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PBOC Adds Another 10.3 Tonnes To Gold Holdings
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(Kitco News) - The binge in central-bank gold buying continued when the People’s Bank of China announced at the start of the week that it added another 10.3 tonnes of the precious metal to its holdings, analysts said.
Commerzbank pointed out that the Chinese central bank has now added to its gold reserves every month since December.
“During this period, it has bought a good 85 tonnes of gold in total,” Commerzbank said. “One reason is likely to be the trade dispute with the U.S., which has prompted China to reduce its dollar holdings and U.S. Treasuries of late.”
Fifteen percent of the world’s gold demand last year came from came from central banks, which collectively bought 651.5 tonnes, according to World Gold Council data. These were the most central-bank purchases in roughly half a century. Then in the first quarter of this year, global official gold purchase totaled 145.5 tonnes, a 68% increase compared to the same period in 2018.
“2019 so far has been a strong year for central-bank gold buying with a number of macroeconomic headwinds driving the need to diversify away from the USD [U.S. dollar],” said analysts with BMO Capital Markets.
This comes after news last week that Poland has become the top holder of gold in central Europe by more than doubling its holdings, BMO added.
