China's central bank bought a further 16 tons of gold in August

Gold is treading water at around the $1,120 per troy ounce mark in the run-up to the meeting of the US Federal Reserve. 

"Since next week's meeting could point the way forward (the Fed may raise interest rates again for the first time since mid-2006), gold is unlikely to do much else until then. Because the US dollar is weaker this morning, gold in euro terms has slipped back below the €1,000 per troy ounce mark for the first time in one-and-a-half weeks", says Commerzbank. 

China indirectly reported further gold purchases yesterday, though this went virtually unnoticed by the market, whereas currency reserves declined significantly in August, the value of gold reserves last month increased by just shy of $2.6 billion to $61.8 billion, according to the People's Bank of China (PBoC), China's central bank. 

Based on the gold price figures for the end of July and the end of August, this points to PBoC gold purchases of a good 16 tons last month. The PBoC had already added around 19 tons of gold to its reserves back in July.