China is rapidly building up bank gold reserves
People's Bank of China's April 2023 gold reserves rose by 260,000 ounces (8.09 tons) to 66.76 million ounces (2,076 tons), showing growth for the sixth consecutive month after more than a three-year hiatus, according to the bank.
At the end of April, gold reserves were estimated at $132.353 billion, which was higher than $131.653 billion at the end of March, reflecting the change in world gold prices.
Until November 2022, the bank 37 consecutive months did not buy gold in reserves after ten months of purchases. The bank resumed official purchases of metal for reserves in December 2018 after a break of more than two years.
In the last two months of 2022, China's central bank purchased a total of 2 million ounces of gold.