The last time we looked at
monthly Chinese imports of gold from Hong Kong in 2012, the comparable
country in question was Portugal (whose citizens, if not central bank,
incidentally have run out of gold to sell),
because that is whose total gold holdings (at 382.5 tons) Chinese
imports had just surpassed. Fast forward a month later, and the update
is even more disturbing. In July, Chinese gold imports from HK, after
two months of declines, have picked up once more and hit a 3-month high
of 75.8 tons. While it is notable that this number is double the 38.1
tons imported a year prior, and that year-to-date imports are now a
record 458.6 tons, well over four times greater than the seven month
total in 2011 which was 103.9 tons, what is far more important is that
in the first seven months of 2012 alone China has imported nearly as
much gold as the total holdings of the hedge fund at the heart of the
Eurozone, elsewhere known simply as the European Central Bank, and just
as importantly considering the import run-rate has hardly slowed down in
August, which data we will have in a few weeks, it is now safe to say that in 2012 alone China has imported more gold than the ECB's entire official 502.1 tons of holdings.