The latest rankings for the world’s largest consumer of gold has been released, and the winner is…India. India finally edged out China for the title, primarily due to sliding Chinese demand.
Mineweb reported:
“Slower economic growth and a crackdown on corruption helped knock Chinese jewellery demand to 608 tonnes, 33 percent below the previous year’s ‘extraordinary’ levels, it said. Physical bar demand fell 53 percent to 171 tonnes, a five-year low.”
Will India keep the lead in 2015? Maybe not…
“We do expect an increase in Chinese demand this year. However, without a dramatic course of events we would not expect it to come close to matching the level in 2013.”
The report also indicated just how hard gold fell in 2014. According to Hard Assets:
“The GFMS analysts report also states that the global physical gold demand tanked 19% in 2014. Also, the world jewelry demand fell 11%. The global gold mine production jumped nearly 2% to a record 3,109 tons during the year. However, scrap supply of gold saw a cut of 11%.”
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Photo courtesy of Hard Assets