China mulls opening door on gold market

Financial authorities in China are considering measures which would make it easier for foreign investors to participate in the country's largely isolated gold derivatives market, a move which would hasten the integration of the local precious metal market with the global market, Xie Duo, general director of the financial market department at the People's Bank of China, said Monday at the annual London Bullion Market Association conference. Xie did not offer a timeline or further details.

Such a plan, if brought to fruition, could also eventually give the country more control over international gold prices, according to experts contacted by the Global Times.

Due to a lack of experience overseeing gold derivatives, financial regulators in China have kept overseas investors at a distance for years, Sun Yonggang, a gold analyst from Everbright Futures, told the Global Times.

But insulating the market has stalled its development and eroded the global influence of Chinese gold futures, said Sun, who added that most contracts for the precious metal in China simply track the movements of their counterparts overseas and are thus poor reflections of actual supply and demand pressures within the domestic market.

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