Reuters report
China may be curbing the ability of residents to buy gold.
Reuters reports that China started restricting gold imports started three months ago and that has depressed imports by 300-500 tonnes; or $15-$25 billion.
This is gold-negative on the face of it. Of course, that comes at the same time as a major rally in gold, so you could argue that the market is even stronger than it appeared. Also, gold buying is a very tough thing to stop and smuggling it is relatively easy. It also becomes a bit of a forbidden fruit if the government tries to stop it.
However overall this is a negative because it could just be the start of Chinese financial repression of gold.
