Published On 7/7/2026
The Chinese Central Bank increased its purchases of gold in June, recording the largest monthly addition since October 2023, in a move that reflects Beijing’s commitment to diversifying its official reserves despite the sharp wave of decline that the precious metal was exposed to during the past month.
Official data issued by the Chinese Administration of Foreign Exchange showed that China’s possession of gold rose to 75.44 million ounces in June, compared to 74.96 million ounces in May, which means adding 480,000 ounces, or about 14.9 tons, to official reserves. The declared dollar value of gold holdings in Chinese reserves reached $303.72 billion at the end of June.
The increase came, according to Bloomberg, to extend the longest continuous buying wave by the People’s Bank of China since at least 2015, as the central bank continued to add gold to its reserves for the twentieth month in a row, in an indication of the continuation of the policy of reducing dependence on dollar assets and increasing the metal component of the reserves.
Gold fell 12% in June, breaking the level of $4,000 per ounce, recording the largest monthly loss since 2008, under pressure from expectations of raising US interest rates after the rise in inflation risks associated with the war on Iran and the tightening tone of the Federal Reserve.
Despite the increase in the amount owned by the Chinese Central Bank, official reserves data reveal a decline in the declared dollar value of gold from $340.75 billion in May to $303.72 billion in June, which reflects the impact of falling prices on the evaluation of the metal’s possession within reserves.
China’s foreign exchange reserves also recorded $3.416 trillion in June, compared to $3.442 trillion in May.
Away from the dollar
The World Gold Council, in its annual survey issued in June 2026, says that central banks have accumulated an average of about a thousand tons of gold annually during the past four years, compared to an average of 500 tons annually in the previous decade, in a clear acceleration of the pace of official purchases of the precious metal.
The survey, which included 76 central banks, showed that 89% of participants expect global central banks’ gold reserves to increase during the next 12 months, while 45% said they expect their institutions’ holdings of gold to increase during the same period, which is a record percentage in the history of the survey.
The World Gold Council also indicated that 74% of participants expect the share of the dollar in global reserves to decline over the next five years, while they expect the share of gold to increase, which places China’s moves within a broader wave of redistribution of official reserves globally.
Central banks hold gold
According to the World Gold Council, factors such as gold’s performance in times of crises, portfolio diversification, inflation hedging, and geopolitical risk hedging are among the most prominent motivations for central banks to retain the precious metal or increase their allocations to it. Also, 90% of the survey participants said that the performance of gold in times of crises is an important factor in the decision to keep it, which is the highest percentage recorded for this factor in the survey.
This factor is of particular importance for emerging and developing economies, as the survey showed that 95% of banks in this group believe that geopolitical instability is an influential factor in managing reserves, compared to 67% among central banks in advanced economies.
In July, the World Gold Council said that central banks returned to buying in May, with a net increase of 41 tons, noting that China was among the most prominent buyers along with Poland, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.
He stated that China added 25 tons to its reserves from the beginning of the year until May, before raising its purchases again in June.
