China’s gold sales drop 7% in Q1
Print Edition
CHINA’S gold sales in the first quarter fell 7 percent from a year earlier on cooling economic growth and investment shifting to the stock markets, the World Gold Council said yesterday.
Sales sank to 272.9 tons, compared with a 1 percent decline globally and a 15 percent surge in India, the world’s second-largest consumer after China.
Jewelry demand slumped by 10 percent to 213.2 tons, the council said, saying the government’s anti-corruption drive has hit buying by those who want to present gifts to public officials.
“Rallying domestic equity markets also ate into quarterly gold demand in China, which has lacked firm price direction in recent quarters,” said the council.
Almost 8 million new stock accounts were opened in the first quarter, up 433 percent, according to the China Securities Regulatory Commission. The council noted the majority of account owners are people in their 40s and 50s who were the backbone of the gold-buying frenzy in 2013.
China was the world’s biggest consumer in 2014, with gold purchases of 976.3 tons. India may take over first place this year with nearly 900 tons of demand, said Samson Li, senior analyst at Thomson Reuters GFMS Commodities Research.
The bullion price shed 6 percent to US$1,218.5 per ounce by the end of the first quarter. GFMS in its 2015 Gold Survey predicts an average annual gold price of US$1,170 per ounce.
A precious metal specialist at one of China’s big banks, who declined to be identified, said there’s no sign yet for a resumption of a bull market in gold.
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