LONDON, 23 December 2009 ? New research from gold ownership and trading service BullionVault is published today by the Financial Times' China Confidential newsletter.
Forecasting that China will overtake India as the world's No.1 private gold buyer "by a considerable margin" for full-year 2009, "Robust demand will likely continue next year," says Adrian Ash, head of research at BullionVault and editor of its free Gold News service.
Studying the last five years of available data, Ash examines China's phenomenal gold demand in terms of economic growth, household savings, low real rates of interest and rampant credit excess, as well as gold's quasi-religious and auspicious appeal in Chinese culture.
"Demand for this solid, tangible, intrinsically valuable store of wealth will only have grown in the last quarter of 2009," says Ash. Most crucially since the Chinese gold market was first deregulated in 2002, "Owning the metal is most often viewed more as an end-in-itself than as an investment vehicle; it's the aim of accumulation, not the means."
Subscribers to FT China Confidential (starting at £600 for 3 months) can read BullionVault's article here. Or you can read the full story, for free, at Gold News.
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