China Imports More Gold In 2012 Than All ECB Holdings with...

China Imports More Gold In 2012 Than All ECB Holdings with Fullermoney
11th Sep 2012, 8:27 am

As a reminder, the last time China gave an update of its official gold holdings was in April for 2009. This means China has been aggressively hoarding gold for the past three and a half years without issuing an official peep about where its inventory stands now.

Luckily, those who keep track of the newsflow have some idea.

As an even more important reminder, in December 2009, the China Youth Daily quoted State Council advisor Ji as saying that a team of experts from Beijing and Shanghai have set up a "task force" last year to consider growing China's gold reserves. "We suggested that China's gold reserves should reach 6,000 tons in the next 3-5 years and perhaps 10,000 tons in 8-10 years," the paper quoted him. Has China managed to accumulated 6,000 tons yet? We won't know for sure until the official disclosure which will come when China is ready and not a moment earlier, but at the current run-rate of accumulation which is just shy of 1,000 tons per year, it is certainly within the realm of possibilities that China is now the second largest holder of gold in the world, surpassing Germany's 3,395 tons and second only to the US.

Going back to the "important things", here is another one: in all of 2012, according toTreasury International Capital flow data, China has increased its Treasury holdings from $1,151.9 billion as of December 31, 2011 to just $1164.3 billion: a total increase of just $12.4 billion in 6 months: the slowest run-rate since China started to recycle in budget surplus into US paper.