We’re not investing in gold. We’re just buying it

Thu Feb 27, 2014

Man and gold are not easily parted. Even as investment gurus made doomsday predictions through much of 2013, consumers gleefully added to their hoard of physical gold. Globally, 1,654 tons of gold were bought as bars and coins and 2,209 tons as jewellery. Overall, purchases of the yellow metal in physical form (and not as paper exchange traded fund units) jumped 21 per cent in 2013.

The World Gold Council reveals that consumption of gold bars and coins was the highest ever in 2013, registering a 28 per cent growth. With gold prices dropping 34 per cent in just nine months, lay buyers made the most of the opportunity. Larger investors in gold ETFs meanwhile sold the equivalent of 881 tons from such funds. The Indian consumer too displayed his/her voracious appetite for gold by continuing to buy, ignoring import curbs, gold-loan restrictions and import duty hikes. Demand for coins and bars recorded a stronger 16 per cent growth, while jewellery demand increased 11 per cent in India.  LINK...

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Essentially HALF the world is bullish on gold, when you consider China and India combined! You think these cultures and societies that have been around for thousands of years longer than Western society, knows something we don't?  BK