China's rise as world's largest gold producer and consumer highlighted by WGC

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China's rise as world's largest gold producer and consumer highlighted by WGC

On Sept 11, 2022, a customer tries gold jewelry at a store in Danzhai County, southwest China's Guizhou Province. The PHOTO XINHUA China's rise as the largest producer and consumer of gold worldwide was highlighted by the statistics from the 30 years of Gold Demand Trends report by the World Gold Council on Wednesday.

In 2022, it was estimated that China accounted for 10 percent of the world's total gold production and has been the world's largest gold producer since 2007, according to the WGC's report released on Tuesday.

China has maintained its position as the world's largest gold consumer since 2013, with its annual gold consumption going from a little over 375 tons in the early 1990s to a record high of 1,347 tons in 2013.

READ MORE: Gold glitters as central banks stock up.

The gold jewelry market in China has seen a huge growth trend. Demand for gold jewelry went up by 939 tons in 2013, an increase of 328 percent in the last ten years.

In 2022, China accounted for over 27 percent of the total global demand for gold jewelry.

China has seen its gold bar and coin markets go up from 12 tons in 2004 to 218 tons in 2022.

China's gold consumption demand has averaged around 945 tons annually over the past decade, a 30 percent share of the global total.

The People's Bank of China, China's central bank, has added 1,616 tons of gold to its reserves over the last 30 years.

By the end of 2022, the central bank's total gold reserves had reached 2,011 tons, after adding a total of 62 tons of gold reserves in the last two months of 2022, according to another report by WGC, named 2022 Gold Demand Trends.

The Chinese central bank has increased its holdings after 38 months for the first time since September 2019.

Demand for gold bars and coins in the Chinese market decreased by 218 tons in 2022, a 24 percent decrease compared to the last year, while demand for gold jewelry is currently at 571 tons, a 15 percent decline year-on-year.

Demand for gold globally jumped 18 percent to 4,740 in 2022, up from 18 percent in 2022. The highest annual total demand since 2011 is 7 tons. 1,136 tons of annual gold purchases were made by central banks worldwide, according to the report.

Louise Street, a senior markets analyst at the World Gold Council, said that the decline in Chinese gold demand was only a temporary result of certain conditions and is set to rebound soon.

In the first quarter of 2023, a positive seasonal factors and strong central bank demand for gold are expected to help China retain its position as the world's top gold consumer in 2023, according to Louise.

The focus of commercial banks on gold sales and the growing willingness of investors to purchase gold as an effective and stable store of value are factors that will help the Chinese economy recover in 2023, according to Wang Lixin, regional CEO of the WGC China.