by Arsenio Toledo, Natural News:
China is accelerating its selling of United States Treasury securities and replacing its holdings with more gold.
Since 2008, the communist nation has been one of the largest foreign holders of U.S. Treasuries. It started selling off its U.S. Treasuries slowly in 2018, right around the same time when the country started buying more gold.
The reason for the accelerated sell-off has not been disclosed. But it should be noted that China has had a strong incentive to diversify its foreign reserves away from American-held goods ever since the U.S. sanctioned Russia’s dollar holdings. (Related: Global DE-DOLLARIZATION is on the way as world’s central banks buy gold at fastest pace in 55 years.)
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According to the latest data from the Department of the Treasury, China’s U.S. Treasuries on November 2022 fell by $7 billion to $870 billion compared to the previous month. This is the lowest China’s holdings of U.S. Treasuries have been since May 2010, when it had $843.7 billion.
According to King World News, it is estimated that China has sold off around $310 billion worth of U.S. Treasuries holdings since 2018, with more than half of this – $199 billion – being sold in 2022 alone.
China, other nations to continue growing their gold reserves this year
China’s latest report regarding its gold holdings suggests that the country has 2,025 tons of publicly announced gold in its reserves. The nation is expected to keep expanding its gold reserves throughout 2023 alongside other central banks, accelerating the global trend toward de-dollarization.
CITIC Securities, China’s largest publicly traded brokerage, believes the price of gold will hit record highs this year, thanks to the buying sprees of the world’s central banks, led by the People’s Bank of China.
“Purchases by global central banks are one of the most reliable indicators signaling gains in bullion prices,” said Ao Chong, an analyst for CITIC. “Gold prices are expected to retain momentum and will be underpinned by easing expectations about the Fed’s interest rate increases, the continuation of geopolitical conflicts and economic recession.”
Most of China’s latest gold imports came from Switzerland, with Swiss exports of gold to China up to 524 tons, worth around $33 billion dollars. This is a massive increase from the 354 tons of Swiss gold China bought in 2021 and the most gold China purchased from the country since 2018.
The next largest exporter of gold to China is Russia, which sent over 6.6 tons of gold in 2022, a 67 percent increase from 2021.
All of this gold buying has caused gold priced in the Chinese yuan on the Shanghai Gold Exchange to rise by 4.53 percent in 2022, currently trading at around 390 yuan ($57) per gram.
Emerging central banks, on average, hold about two-thirds of their reserves in dollar-denominated assets, and less than five percent of their holdings are in gold. These ratios are expected to change rapidly in favor of gold.
In total, central banks last year purchased more gold than they have since 1967 and the second-most since 1955.
