World gold demands fall 4% in 2014
Source: www.chinamining.org Citation: Shanghai Daily Date: February 13, 2015
A decline in jewelry consumption more than offset the growth in demand for gold investment and central bank buying and led to a fall in global gold consumption, the World Gold Council said yesterday.
Gold consumption worldwide fell 4 percent last year from 2013 to 3,924 tons, the WGC said in a report.
But the year ended strong as demand in the fourth quarter rose 6 percent year on year to 987 tons, helped by demand for jewelry and central bank buying.
The WGC expects China`s gold consumption to rise to between 900 and 1,000 tons this year, with jewelry contributing about 70 percent of the volume.
"2014 was a year of stabilization in the gold market, with annual gold demand down by just 4 percent after the record-breaking buying seen in 2013," said Marcus Grubb, managing director, investment strategy at the WGC.
"It was a standout year for Indian jewelry, despite government restrictions on gold imports. Meanwhile Chinese gold demand returned to levels last seen in 2011 and 2012."
Jewelry remained the biggest source of demand ¡ª 2,153 tons ¡ª for gold last year. But demand "unsurprisingly" fell 10 percent compared with the previous year due to the price-driven demand surge for jewelry in 2013, the WGC said.
India had its strongest year for jewelry demand since the WGC records began in 1995, up 8 percent last year to 662 tons, driven by weddings and festival buying despite government curbs on gold imports for most of the year.
Chinese jewelry demand dimmed 33 percent year on year, but it still represented the second-best year for jewelry demand in China since the WGC records began.
Investment demand rose 2 percent to 905 tons in 2014 from 885 tons in 2013.
Central bank demand climbed 17 percent from a year earlier to 477 tons as gold remained a valuable reserve to hold.
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