China is already the world's largest country for gold trade, an executive at the Shanghai Gold Exchange said on Wednesday.

The increase in trade volume in China's gold market slowed in 2012, after over 10 years of growth, some experts said.

The trade volume of China's gold market decreased by 12.17 percent in 2012 compared with the previous year, said Liu Shan'en, secretary-general of the Beijing Gold Economic Research Center's expert committee.

"The fast development in the past 10 years is a result of the formation of segment markets," he said.