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China's central bank held back on buying gold for its reserves for a fourth straight month in August, official data showed on Saturday. China's gold holdings stood at 72.8 million fine troy ounces at the end of last month.
The value of the gold reserves, however, rose to $182.98 billion compared with $176.64 billion at the end of July.
Gold prices have been rising this year amid bets that U.S. rate cuts are imminent and due to safe-haven demand driven by geopolitical and economic uncertainty, with central banks making robust purchases.
The PBOC is expected to resume purchases at some point despite high prices due to political, rather than economical, motivations, such as its desire to be less dependent on the U.S. dollar as a reserve asset, said Carsten Menke, an analyst at Julius Baer.
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