DgcityChina’s central bank extended its gold-buying run to 24 consecutive months in October, making its largest monthly purchase since it resumed adding bullion to reserves two years ago, as a pullback in prices offered a chance to keep diversifying away from dollar assets.
The People’s Bank of China added roughly 830,000 troy ounces, or about 26 metric tons, last month, bringing its total reported gold holdings to 78.3 million ounces. Purchases over the first 10 months of 2026 now total around 129 tons. The bank has bought gold every month since November 2024, when it ended a pause of nearly half a year.
The stepped-up buying came as gold prices slid below 4,000 dollars an ounce, down more than 20 percent from peaks reached during the early months of the Middle East conflict. Elevated energy costs have kept inflation and interest rates high across much of the world, and gold, which pays no yield, tends to struggle when rates rise. For a central bank that is still accumulating, that weakness is an opportunity rather than a problem.
China is far from alone. Central banks globally have been net buyers of gold for years as they reshape reserves after the freezing of Russian foreign assets in 2022, an event that prompted many governments to reconsider holdings denominated in dollars and euros. Beijing’s purchases are among the most closely watched because of the scale of its reserves and the signal they send to Chinese households.
That signal appears to be landing. Retail investors in China bought bullion aggressively around the 4,000-dollar level during October, treating the dip as a chance to accumulate metal they expect the central bank to keep supporting. Gold has become increasingly popular with Chinese savers at a time when deposit rates are falling, property prices are sliding and stock markets are volatile.
That shift is visible in the demand numbers. Investment buying of bars, coins and gold-backed funds in China has surged this year even as jewellery consumption weakened, with many buyers deterred by record-high retail prices and a tax change that raised costs for some gold products. China overtook India long ago as the world’s largest physical gold market, and the mix of its buying now tilts more toward storage of wealth than adornment.
The same day it reported gold purchases, the central bank said China’s foreign exchange reserves rose by 4.9 billion dollars to 3.41 trillion, a move driven mainly by currency fluctuations and changes in global asset prices. Gold remains a small fraction of that total by value, which leaves room for years more buying if policymakers continue their quiet rebalancing.
