Just why are the authorities in Beijing so actively supporting widespread purchases of gold and financial gold instruments? China has also been telling its citizens to buy gold, promoting different gold funds, giving investors access to overseas products and launching a global gold contract based in yuan by the Chinese Gold & Silver Exchange.Theories abound as to why China is buying gold both for its central reserve (which now stands at 1054 tons, or about 1.8 percent of it central bank reserves), and encouraging its citizens to hoard gold as well. The front-runner is that China is on a drive to have the yuan accepted as the world’s reserve currency and amassing gold will improve investor confidence, if you like a return to a gold standard. If that were really the plan, China would have a profound impact on the gold market. As TheStreet.com points out, China holds $2.85 trillion in foreign reserves, which means the country would need to buy roughly 66,000 tons of gold to fully back its currency. Even if the country raised its holdings to just 3 percent, the country would need to buy 1,000 tons. The article goes on to point out that technically, a full gold standard isn’t an option. Under the IMF’s first amendment to Article IV of Agreement, ratified in 1978, participating countries are not allowed to peg their currency to gold, but that doesn’t undermine the attraction of carrying large gold reserves as an expression of solidity.
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