By Gordon G. Chang
Forbes
Last year, China imported and mined far more gold than its citizens and businesses purchased. Some think there was substantial back-channel hoarding of the metal due to uneasiness over the economy while others speculate that the People’s Bank of China , the central bank, secretly acquired the metal for its foreign reserves. A few believers of the second scenario argue that Beijing will attack the dollar by soon announcing a new gold-backed currency.
This month, the China Gold Association released data showing that the country’s consumption of the yellow metal in 2013 reached 1,176.4 metric tons, an increase of 41.4% over 2012. Yet that tonnage is far less than the total of mine production — 428.2 tons — and imports from Hong Kong, 1,158.2 tons. The discrepancy: 410.0 tons.