The Chinese central bank continues to buy gold, but at a more modest pace. There were also purchases in January, for the fifteenth consecutive month, but they were of modest size: 40 thousand ounces (equal to approximately 1.1 tons), according to data released on Saturday 7th by the People’s Bank of China.
China’s gold reserves they thus stood at 74.19 million ounces, for a booked value of 369.58 billion dollars, compared to 319.45 billion a year earlier.
The ingot rally – which trades around 4,960 dollars an ounce, after reaching close to 5,600 dollars last month – reduces the push to purchase: with record prices, smaller volumes are moreover sufficient to achieve the same diversification objectives.
La China Gold Association in the meantime it announced that in 2025, for the second year in a row, gold consumption in China decreased: -3.75% to 950 tons. The contraction is however mainly linked to the jewelery sector. Purchases of investment bars and coins have in fact increased by as much as 35% and now represent over half of the total gold consumption in China.
Il World Gold Council (Wgc) had recently highlighted similar dynamics, at a global level: in 2025, investor hunger became the only factor driving demand for gold (but it was also strong enough to push it to historic highs, over 5 thousand tons).
date:2026-02-07 19:52:00
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