BEIJING, April 7 (Reuters) - China's central bank stayed the course on gold purchases for a 17th consecutive month, data from the People's Bank of China (PBOC) showed on Tuesday.
The country's gold holdings rose to 74.38 million fine troy ounces by the end of March from the previous month's 74.22 million.
The gold reserves' value fell to $342.76 billion at the end of last month, down from $387.59 billion a month earlier, data from PBOC showed. The drop marked the first decline in the value of China's gold reserves since May 2025, reflecting the steepest monthly fall in the price of gold since 2008, with spot gold dropping 11.52%.
Gold, considered a safe-haven asset at times of geopolitical turmoil, was hit by inflation and growth worries as well as higher interest rate expectations after the United States and Israel launched a war against Iran.
However, steady buying by world central banks helped to support gold prices "during periods of volatility and limit downside at a time when investor flows soften," analysts at ING Economics said.
The PBOC, which halted an 18-month-long gold buying streak in May 2024, resumed purchases six months later.
Reporting by Qiaoyi Li and Ryan Woo in Beijing, Dylan Duan in Shanghai Editing by Bernadette Baum and Tomasz Janowski
