The Chinese government's move to tighten gold import quotas amid concern over capital flight has reportedly triggered anger among domestic investors, who have shown more interest in gold as the yuan's exchange rate weakens.
China imposed limits on gold imports, resulting in certified banks being incapable of importing gold in bulk, the Financial Times reported Thursday, citing industry insiders.
The FT report said some Chinese banks with import licenses have recently faced difficulty obtaining approval to import gold. It is "a move tied to China's attempts to stop a weakening (yuan) by tightening outflows of dollars," FT said.
But the move might not be what the FT report suggested, because it's a common phenomenon for the import quotas of banks at the end of a year, according to media reports.
"It's common for certified commercial banks to increase gold imports in October and November to achieve their annual gold import quotas, which directly reduces their import quotas in December," news portal gfic.cn reported Thursday.
