China's Gold Imports Hit Record High, Spending $158.8 Billion in First 8 Months
nashnova research
China imported over 1,000 tonnes of gold in the first eight months of this year, spending $158.8 billion — both all-time records. This means → the central bank and private investors are simultaneously shifting wealth from dollar assets into physical gold, a force now central to global price formation.
What does $158.8 billion in gold actually look like?
Over 1,000 tonnes imported in eight months, at a cost of $158.8 billion — both the highest on record.
For comparison, all of 2025 saw 886 tonnes purchased for $965 billion. This year's eight-month total already exceeds last year's full-year figure by over 60%.
This means → China's buying rhythm has shifted from "buy the dip" to "buy continuously at scale," with far less price sensitivity than before.
Gold prices more than doubled — why keep buying?
Gold surged from roughly $2,625 per troy ounce in early 2025 to a January peak of $5,595 — more than doubling.
China briefly slowed purchases during the spike, but imports rebounded sharply once prices stabilized at elevated levels.
In plain terms = this is not chasing a rally. China is treating gold as a long-term reserve asset — buying less when prices spike, but never changing direction.
Who is buying, and what for?
Liu Sha, managing director at Jinshan Asset Management (a Zijin Mining subsidiary), said both the central bank and private investors are diversifying reserves and savings as part of a broader wealth-preservation strategy.
She stressed: "This is not a short-term trade but a structural reallocation of household and official assets that will play out over years."
This reflects a shift beyond speculation — it is a systematic migration of assets from paper to physical holdings.
Are falling Treasury holdings and rising gold purchases the same story?
In July, China's U.S. Treasury holdings dropped to $618 billion — the lowest in nearly eighteen years.
China is also the world's largest gold producer, mining 384 tonnes last year.
This means → selling Treasuries and buying gold form a mirror image — China is systematically reducing its dependence on dollar-denominated assets.
How do global institutions read this gold rally?
Christopher Hamilton, head of client solutions for Asia-Pacific at Invesco, said gold's price behavior has diverged from past episodes when rising real yields weighed on the metal.
Investors now operate in an environment where they want to hold physical assets, he noted, and institutional buying remains the most important driver of gold prices.
In plain terms = the old rule — rates up, gold down — has broken. Buyers are reaching for gold not because rates are low, but because they distrust paper assets.
How long can this trend last?
Multiple countries are also repatriating gold reserves — the Netherlands recently moved part of its holdings from New York to London.
Whether China's structural gold-buying trend continues depends on the evolution of geopolitical dynamics and global economic uncertainty.
This reflects gold's upgrade from "safe-haven asset" to "sovereign-credit hedge" — as long as great-power rivalry and economic uncertainty persist, the logic for buying gold does not disappear.
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