Roughly 20.2 metric tons of gold flowed into China’s reserves in August, extending Beijing’s steady effort to shift its holdings away from dollar assets and keeping alive one of the market’s most durable sources of demand.
That 650,000 ounce addition pushed the People’s Bank of China’s holdings to 76.73 million ounces, up from 76.08 million at the end of July, official data released Monday showed. The purchase marked a sixth straight month of buying and a 22nd consecutive month of additions.
Not since October 2023, when holdings climbed by 740,000 ounces, has China logged a larger monthly gain. August also topped the 640,000 ounces booked in July, part of an acceleration that began after a modest 160,000 ounce addition in March. The bank added 480,000 ounces in June.
Rising prices did much of the work on the balance sheet. The reported value of China’s gold reserves surged to US$350.08 billion at the end of August from US$306.35 billion a month earlier, though the US$43.7 billion difference mostly reflects the jump in bullion prices rather than the physical buying alone.
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Bullion rose 9.7% in August, its strongest monthly advance since January, aided by a weaker dollar, lower Treasury yields and safe-haven demand. A hawkish turn from Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh late in the month pressured prices as traders revived bets on further US rate increases.
So far in 2026 the central bank has accumulated about 80 tonnes, taking its total to roughly 2,387 tonnes. The logic is reserve diversification. Gold carries no sovereign credit risk and sits outside another country’s financial system, an attractive trait for a bank whose vast foreign-exchange holdings have long leaned on dollar assets.
Persistent official buying tends to place a structural floor under demand, leaving deep pullbacks more likely to attract fresh interest.
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