China Ends Mystery of Gold Hoard to Top Russia’s Holdings

[Zippyjuan]

It's official. They now have 1,658 metric tons of gold reserves moving them up to fifth place among governments and central banks. That is a bit shy of 10,000 tonnes some speculated they must have.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articl...ure-since-2009

China Ends Mystery of Gold Hoard to Top Russia’s Holdings

China ended six years of mystery over how much gold it’s hoarding, revealing a 57 percent jump in reserves and overtaking Russia to become the country with the fifth-largest stash of the metal.

“The market has been speculating on the size of China’s gold reserves for years and the central bank has always been reticent until now,” Fu Peng, a portfolio manager at Lianzhan Global Macro Fund Management Co., said by phone from Beijing.

China boosted bullion assets to 53.31 million troy ounces, or about 1,658 metric tons, the People’s Bank of China said in a statement Friday. That’s up from 1,054 tons in 2009, when it last updated the figures. The U.S. has the biggest reserves at 8,133.5 tons, data from the World Gold Council show.

Gold prices were little changed in reaction as the gain was much less than some had reckoned. Bloomberg Intelligence this year estimated a possible tripling to 3,500 tons, based on domestic output, and China Gold Association and trade figures.

“People were expecting that they have bought a lot more,” Mark O’Byrne, executive director of Dublin-based brokerage GoldCore Ltd., said by phone. “That’s why we haven’t seen much of a movement so far today. The big question is whether they now continue buying.”

Greater Role
Gold remains a large part of many central banks’ reserves, decades after they stopped using it to back paper money. Stockpiles of the metal help China to diversify its foreign-exchange holdings as the world’s second-largest economy seeks to raise the international profile of its own currency. The disclosure on gold reserves also assists in that goal.

“China is still pushing for a greater role for its currency globally by having full transparency,” Fu said.

[randomname]

supposedly from 1 month to another they increased their holdings by 57%. That is of course impossible in a month where the price of gold lowered by 2%, so they've been fabricating the number all along. The current number may very well still be understated...

[Zippyjuan]

Actually that is not from one month to another but since 2009- the last time they updated the figure. That is six years.

That’s up from 1,054 tons in 2009, when it last updated the figures.

Their gold reserves are believed to come from their own gold productivity- not open market purchases anyways so they would not have had any impact on gold market prices.

[randomname]

the point is they've been lying about the number for 6 years, and almost certainly still are, considering how well below official expectations the published number is. Every month they've been reporting the same number:



http://www.pbc.gov.cn/publish/html/2015s09.htm

[eleganz]

How funny that China under reports their gold holdings and the US lies about having much much much more than they really have.

[randomname]

Rickards on why they'd underreport their holdings:

"China reveals enough gold to be respectable, but not enough to disrupt. Consistent with idea they want to join the #SDR club, not destroy it"

[devil21]

I want to know how much gold the BRICS bank is holding. Not that I necessarily believe the PBOC's gold holdings but at this point, it is secondary to what the BRICS bank holds.

[Zippyjuan]

If by the BRICs bank you mean the BRICs Development Bank- they have zero gold. They have PLEDGES of $100 billion in capital but they don't even have real offices or staff yet.

Article from this week: http://indianexpress.com/article/bus...nfrastructure/

The board of directors of the New Development Bank is likely to meet next month to begin working on recruitment as well as other infrastructure issues that are required for making it operational and ready to start lending in local currency by next year.

“The building for the Bank is likely to be provided by the Chinese government in Shanghai but other issues on hiring of executives and support staff still has to be finalised. A meeting of the board of directors of the NDB is likely to take place in August or September,” said a senior government official, adding that the key priority would be to find the right kind of executives and bankers for the job who would have experience in multi-lateral funding agencies.

The $100 billion NDB is promoted by Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa for investments in infrastructure in the five nation bloc.