Net imports via Hong Kong to China, the world's top consumer of the metal, increased to 43.837 tonnes in April from 36.392 tonnes in March, according to data from the Hong Kong Census and Statistics Department.
Total gold imports via Hong Kong rose 19% to 48.687 tonnes last month from 41.082 tonnes in March. Total imports in April were at their highest level since June 2018.
"We are coming from rather lower levels... The demand in China is still muted and we are far away from the levels we saw two or three years ago," Commerzbank analyst Carsten Fritsch said, adding that the April numbers were hardly "exciting."
Traders and analysts expect Chinese demand to remain soft in the second and third quarter.
While premiums in China rose to about $12-14 an ounce over the benchmark from $6-8 last week, reflecting a slight uptick in buying, it has also steadily declined since April, when premiums had risen to the highest in two years, around $20.
China does not provide trade data on gold. So, the Hong Kong figures serve as a proxy for flows to the mainland.
The Hong Kong data, however, might not provide a complete picture of Chinese purchases as gold is also imported via Shanghai and Beijing.
(Reporting by Nallur Sethuraman in Bengaluru; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore & Uttaresh.V)
