China’s November gold purchase extended a 13-month buying streak that has lifted official bullion holdings to a record 2,305 tonnes and raised gold’s share of the country’s $3.3 trillion in foreign exchange reserves to 9.3%.
Data show the People’s Bank of China added 30,000 troy ounces of gold in November, a roughly 0.1% monthly increase that still pushed total reported holdings to a new high. At current prices, those 2,305 tonnes are valued at about $311 billion, an all-time record for China’s official bullion position.
The latest addition means China’s gold holdings have tripled since 2020, a move driven by both sustained central bank purchases and a powerful rally in bullion prices.
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November FX reserves stood at $3.35 trillion, slightly below the roughly $3.36 trillion market estimate shown on the chart. The same graphic pegs total “gross” international reserves at about $3.72 trillion, with FX reserves at $3.35 trillion and gold at $311 billion.
Using the reported values, $311 billion in gold against $3.35 trillion in FX assets implies that gold now represents nearly one-tenth of the official stockpile that had been overwhelmingly concentrated in foreign currency assets. The increase comes even though FX reserves remain the dominant line item on the PBOC’s balance sheet.
The November tally also fits cleanly into Beijing’s broader bullion strategy laid out through 2025. By August, the PBOC had already logged ten straight months of gold buying, coinciding with a roughly 40% year-to-date surge in global prices. During that run, spot gold pushed as high as $3,787.2 per ounce after news that China was pitching its Shanghai Gold Exchange as a custodian for foreign sovereign reserves.
In that custodial initiative, the PBOC approached “friendly” central banks to buy bullion and store it in warehouses linked to the SGE International Board, with at least one Southeast Asian central bank expressing interest. Those holdings would be credited as new reserve assets for the foreign owners rather than transfers from existing stockpiles.
China has also been working on the plumbing of its physical gold trade. A draft PBOC proposal in September 2025 outlined plans to extend import and export permit validity to nine months, remove per-permit usage caps, and widen the number of ports eligible for fast “multi-use permits.”
The central bank said the changes were designed to “enhance vitality and respond to external shocks by improving business environment at ports,” building on a 2016 streamlining that cut paperwork and sped up imports.
Earlier in 2025, the SGE launched its first offshore vault and contracts in Hong Kong to grow yuan-denominated trading, while the PBOC eased gold-import restrictions. Combined with the push to host other countries’ reserves, these measures reinforced Beijing’s stated goal of reducing dependence on the US dollar and on Western financial centers for key reserve functions.
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