China may have bought ten times more gold in 2025 than it officially reported. The purchases were aimed at replacing U.S. dollars in its foreign exchange reserves and may have contributed to the rapid surge in gold prices, which have risen 55% since the beginning of the year, Financial Times reports.
The World Gold Council (WGC) estimated that between 2022 and 2024, central banks bought more than 1,000 tonnes of gold annually for their reserves. This year, purchases already exceed 600 tonnes.
In China, the gold-buying program is carried out by the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), a division of the People’s Bank of China. This year it officially bought 25 tonnes. However, SAFE intermediaries, the sovereign wealth fund CIC, and even the military can also make purchases.
According to estimates by Société Générale, China may actually have bought around 250 tonnes this year—more than one-third of all central bank purchases in 2025.
Société Générale analyzed trade data, including shipments of gold from London — the world’s main market for bullion preferred by central banks for storage.
China’s gold purchases are part of its de-dollarization strategy, aimed at reducing the share of U.S. dollars in its reserves, analysts say.
Many other central banks are following the same strategy. Over the past decade, the share of gold in reserves outside the U.S. has risen from 10% to 26%, making it the second-largest reserve asset after the dollar.
Central banks have been the main driving force in the gold market since the start of the war in Ukraine, says John Treacy, publisher of the investment newsletter Fuller Treacy Money. The freezing of Russia’s foreign reserves encouraged many countries to diversify their holdings to reduce dependence on the U.S. dollar and U.S. Treasury bonds.
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