BEIJING, CHINA (Reuters) — Full-year gold demand of the global market in 2015 was virtually unchanged compared with 2014, down just a fraction of 14 metric tons to 4,212 metric tons, said a report released by the World Gold Council last week.
The gold market faced a number of challenges in the first half of the year, with demand declining by 6 percent year-on-year, due to a sluggish first quarter followed by a very weak second quarter. But in the second half of 2015, gold demand reached 2,226.6 metric tons, 6 percent above 2014, according to the Gold Demand Trends Full Year 2015.
Central banks bolstered their gold reserves significantly in the second half of 2015, accelerating their purchasing programs for reserve asset diversification purposes. Central banks bought 336.2 metric tons of gold in the second half of 2015, versus 252.1 and 308.8 metric tons respectively in the first and second half 2014, according to the report.
Demand of gold investment increased to 878.3 metric tons in 2015 from 815.4 metric tons in 2014, while demand of gold jewelery fell to 2,414.9 metric tons from 2,480.8 metric tons in 2014, the report said.
The report described consumer resilience in the fourth quarter as “somewhat surprising”, given turbulent economic, climatic and socio-political conditions in many of the markets.
“There was a relatively lower price point in the fourth quarter of 2015, thus the investors entered the market and increased purchases of gold for investments,” said Roland Wang, Managing Director of World Gold Council in China.
The World Gold Council said China and India were the mainstays of the global market, with their total demand accounting for nearly 45 percent of the global demand.
