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Photo: Leonhard Foeger / REUTERS
The corona crisis is having a drastic impact on the gold trade.
On the one hand, the demand for gold coins and gold bars, as well as for securities in which gold is deposited, rose sharply from July to September.
On the other hand, the demand for gold jewelry collapsed due to the numerous corona lockdowns in spring.
This comes from a report by the industry association World Gold Council (WGC).
The bottom line is that global gold demand fell by 19 percent year-on-year to 892 tons in the third quarter.
According to the industry association, this means that demand has not been as weak since the third quarter of 2009.
At that time, the consequences of the severe financial and economic crisis had a negative impact on the global economy.
Now the lockdown restrictions have apparently taken away the desire to buy.
In addition, the gold price has risen by around 20 percent since the beginning of the year; in August the gold price had reached a record high at 2075 US dollars per troy ounce (31.1 grams).
So gold jewelry became more expensive.
According to the report, jewelry demand fell 29 percent year over year to 333 tons in the third quarter.
The largest declines were in China and India.
At the same time, gold was in demand as a safe haven among investors.
In terms of investment demand, the WGC reported a year-on-year increase of 21 percent for the third quarter.
In the three months to the end of September, investors worldwide bought 222.1 tons of gold bars and coins and a further 272.5 tons via ETC securities ("Exchange Traded Commodities") that are backed by physical gold.
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hej / dpa