China seeks to strengthen its position in the global market of precious metals and become a key place for storing foreign gold reserves. The People’s Bank of China, through the Shanghai Gold Exchange, conducts negotiations with the central banks of other countries, offering to place their gold reserves on the territory of the country. This is reports Bloomberg.
At least one Southeast Asian country has already shown interest in such a proposal. The demand for gold among central banks is growing against the background of geopolitical risks and the desire to strengthen financial stability.
Although according to official data, China ranks only fifth in the world in terms of gold reserves, its domestic gold market is the largest in the world. The country is also more active on the international stage: this year, the Shanghai Gold Exchange opened its first offshore storage facility in Hong Kong, and the People’s Bank relaxed the rules for importing the precious metal.
New gold reserves of other countries are planned to be placed in warehouses integrated into the international infrastructure of the Shanghai Gold Exchange. It is about future purchases, and not about the transportation of already available stocks.
The People’s Bank of China continues to actively replenish its gold reserves, doing so for the tenth month in a row. At the same time, official statistics show that in terms of the volume of reserves, China ranks only fifth in the world, significantly lagging behind, in particular, the Bank of England, in whose warehouses more than 5,000 tons of world gold are stored.
