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People's Bank of China buys another 15 tonnes of gold in January, third straight month of buying
(Kitco News) - China continues to flex its muscles in the gold market after data from the People's Bank of China shows that it bought more gold in January, the third straight month.
In a comment on Twitter, Krishan Gopaul, senior European, Middle East and Asian market analyst, said that China's central bank bought 15 tonnes of gold last month; this follows 32 tonnes of gold bought in December and 30 tonnes bought in November.
"This takes its total gold reserves to 2,025 tonnes," Gopaul said.
Before its latest purchases, China didn't report any changes to its gold holdings since 2019.
Analysts expect China to continue to buy gold through 2023 as it looks to add international credibility and stability to the yuan and challenge the U.S. dollar as the world's reserve currency. Last year China started urging Middle Eastern countries to accept yuan for oil. China is the world's largest oil importer.
The World Gold Council noted that during China's last shopping spree, the central bank accumulated 1,448 tonnes of gold between 2002 and 2019.
In a recent interview with Kitco News, George Milling-Stanley said that he expects central bank gold demand to continue to support gold prices through 2023. He added that he expects the global de-dollarization trend to remain firm this year.
"Emerging markets central banks, on average, have something like two-thirds of their reserves in dollar-denominated assets and less than 5% in gold. And they want to change that ratio. They want fewer dollars and they want more gold," he said.
China is just one nation that is stepping up its gold purchases. Last month the World Gold Council noted that central banks bought 417 tonnes of gold in the fourth quarter of last year.
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Gold price climbs closer to $1,900 as China says it bought 30 tonnes in December |
Central banks bought 1,136 tonnes of gold last year, the most since 1967 and the second-highest amount since 1955.
Although China has been getting a lot of attention for its gold purchases, Turkey was by far the most active in the precious metals market last year.
According to the World Gold Council, the Central Bank of Turkey bought 148 tonnes of gold last year.
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