China’s State Administration of Foreign Exchange reported this week that the country’s gold reserves increased to 960.77 tonnes (33.89 million ounces) by the end of April, making it now the fifth largest holder in the world. At the same time, monetary gold in China has grown from 33.724 billion to 66.984 billion yuan ($9.8 billion).
Gold is considered to be one of the main foreign assets held by countries, along with foreign exchange reserves and IMF balances, but its value in China’s reserves is less than 2%. Over the past six years, China has been buying gold through its State Administration of Foreign Exchange in an attempt to diversify the nations foreign exchange reserves.
