China's gold reserves were unchanged for a third straight month in January at 59.24 million fine troy ounces, the central bank said on Tuesday. That represents the longest period China has gone without adding to holdings since it started regularly updating its reserves data in mid-2015, figures from the International Monetary Fund showed.
The value of the gold reserves rose to $71.292 billion at the end of January from $67.878 billion at end-December, data published on the People's Bank of China website showed.
In 2016 as a whole, China's gold reserves rose by 2.58 million ounces, according to the IMF.
In the previous year, between June, when it started reporting its reserves on a monthly basis, and December, it added 3.34 million ounces to its holdings.
Central banks moved from being net sellers of gold to net buyers in 2010.
However, official sector gold acquisitions dwindled last year to a six-year low, with most increases driven by just two central banks, China and Russia.
Gold prices have risen strongly this year, up 6.7 percent since end-December to touch a near three-month high on Monday on the back of a weakening dollar and uncertainty over the pace of US interest rate hikes.
While central bank demand is a much less important driver of gold prices than moves in the dollar and investment flows, it has been an important, stable element in the quarterly supply demand balance, Julius Baer analyst Carsten Menke said.
"At the current point in time, the market is not really concerned, but there might come a point when people are looking at what is happening in China, and (realising) it's not as strong as they thought it would be," he said.
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