China regained gold production growth within the first quarter of 2016

Almaty. May 3. Silkroadnews – 111.563 tons of gold were produced and 318.28 tons of gold were sold in China in the first quarter of 2016, “Xinhua” reports.

“For the first quarter of 2016 China produced 111.563 tons of gold, which is 0.858 tonnes or 0.78% higher compared to the same period of last year. The data have been provided by the China Gold Association,” the statement says.
The agency reminds the price of gold grew a bit in the first quarter, after dropping to minimum of $1063 per ounce in January it then rose to $1282 per ounce, with the maximum growth amplitude of 20.6%. The further fluctuations are expected to be quite serious as soon as the US economy gets recovering and projections on the interest rates growth are strengthening.

“Against this background in the first quarter China observed a gold production growth recovery. Many of the country’s gold mining enterprises recorded growth of precious metals production measured in two-digit numbers. The investments into the gold sector rose significantly and gold reserves volume in the reserves of China’s Central Bank of China grew by 35.15 tons having reached 1797.5 tons as of the end of March,” the information says.

At the same time the January-March period was characterized by 3.91% decrease in gold consumption to 318.28 tons. Under the influence of China’s macroeconomic factors, the demand for gold jewelry is declined. According to the data, “the weight of precious metal in the gold jewelry sold for the first quarter amounted to 193.57 tons, which is 14.44% lower than the same period of the last year.”

“Statistics provided by the China Gold Association shows there is still a rapid growth of China’s gold market. Purchase and sales transactions’ volume at the Shanghai Gold Exchange amounted to 11.3 thousand tons of gold (i.e. 45.32% growth) for the first quarter of the year. And this is the world’s largest market for transactions in physical gold. The Shanghai Futures Exchange ranks the second in the world in terms of futures contracts for gold. Here, the volume of transactions made in the first quarter of the year made 22.3 tons of gold with 79.05% growth,” the statement notes.