Wednesday, March 13, 2013

China "will always keep gold in mind as an option in reserve assets" - Wealth Management

A top Chinese central banker reaffirmed Beijing's continuing strategy of acquiring more gold without driving up prices on the global marketplace. Take with a grain of salt, however, his pledge of gold constituting a 2% maximum of its total foreign exchange reserves. Yi Gang's statement also shows how China is indirectly accumulating gold by allowing its citizens to purchase it:

China is likely to limit its gold holdings to 2 percent of its total foreign exchange reserves, said Yi Gang, a deputy Chinese central bank governor. 

The People's Bank of China last made known changes to its gold reserves in 2009, announcing that it held 1,054 metric tons. The bank hasn't made any revisions since then. That's about 1.8 percent of its total reserves, according to data from the World Gold Council. 

"If the Chinese government were to buy too much gold, gold prices would surge, a scenario that will hurt Chinese consumers," Yi said today in a press briefing in Beijing. "We can only invest about 1-2 percent of the foreign exchange reserves into gold because the market is too small." ...

About two-thirds of China's foreign reserves are dollar-denominated and another quarter is in euros, according to Yao Wei, a Hong Kong-based economist at Societe Generale SA. China is now encouraging companies and residents to keep more foreign currency in a strategy known as "hiding foreign currencies among people," meaning that the government's foreign reserves may "gradually fall," Yang said. ... 

"We will always keep gold in mind as an option in reserve assets and investments," Yi said. "We are able to import 500-600 tons a year, or more, but we will also take into consideration a stable gold market."


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