China's Gold Imports Seen Jumping 50% as Haven Demand Booms

  • Purchases from Hong Kong may rise to highest level since ’13
  • ‘I think we’re going to have a good year,’ says CGSE’s Cheung

Gold bangles sit inside a display case at a Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Group Ltd. store in the Central district of Hong Kong, China, on Friday, Jan. 20, 2017. Chow Tai Fook, the world's largest jewelry chain, last year launched the first of a line of mainland shops selling lower-priced jewelry, with average prices of 2,000 yuan ($291), about a third the prices at its flagship stores.

Photographer: Billy H.C. Kwok/Bloomberg
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China, the world’s biggest gold market, may boost imports through Hong Kong by about half this year as local investors seek to protect their wealth from currency risks, a slowing property market and volatile stocks, according to the Chinese Gold & Silver Exchange Society.

Mainland China is set to import about 1,000 metric tons from the territory in 2017, said Haywood Cheung, president of the century-old exchange in Hong Kong which trades physical gold and silver. That compares with net purchases of 647 tons last year and would be the biggest since 2013, data from the Hong Kong Census and Statistics Department compiled by Bloomberg show.