China’s ‘missing’ Gold

Even the mainstream press was abuzz yesterday on the news that there is an obvious 500 tonne gap between China’s total gold consumption and what its citizens bought in 2013, adding to the expectations that the Government is indeed building its reserves.   The Chinese central bank hasn’t updated its gold reserves number since 2009 yet as a country has been buying in record numbers since then as the graph below depicts with 2013 numbers now included.  In reality it is likely a smart strategy of buying under the radar at low gold prices without forcing them up. Adding to this, numbers just released yesterday show their gold withdrawls for January were an all time record of 247t (more than global production!).