Gold Supply and Demand – Full year and Q4 2007

A steady annual increase in overall identifiable gold tonnage demand, coupled with a gold price racing towards the long held $850 oz record, combined to make dollar demand for gold hit a record US $79bn in 2007. Identifiable gold demand in tonnage terms was 4% higher in 2007 than in 2006 at 3,547 tonnes.

China has now overtaken the US as the second largest volume retail market for gold jewellery after India, with demand for jewellery reaching 302 tonnes. In Turkey and the UAE 2007 brought record overall demand for gold in tonnage terms while strong growth continued in Russia with jewellery demand rising 11% to set a further annual record.

However, high and volatile gold prices had a major impact on the fourth quarter with identifiable demand falling by 17% in tonnage terms from year-earlier levels. This trend was most keenly felt in India, the world’s largest and also most price sensitive gold market, where Q4 demand fell 64% on year earlier levels following 40% growth in the first three quarters. The US was also negatively impacted with a combination of a weak economy, poor retail environment and record prices denting jewellery demand which for 2007 as a whole stood 14% down on 2006 figures.

Read about Gold Demand Trends in our detailed briefing note, which also includes commentary on supply.

Press release: Gold demand reaches record value levels in 2007 but demand suffers in q4 due to high and volatile gold prices

Supply and demand statistics files

End-use consumption (tonnes)This provides details of jewellery consumption, industrial and dental fabrication, and all categories of investment which are statistically identifiable.

End-use consumption ($m) Similar information in US dollars.

Supply and demand (tonnes) In addition to a summary of demand information this also shows the categories of supply: mine output, net hedging or de-hedging by mining companies, scrap and net central bank sales.

Notes and copyright information

Notes: Source: Tonnage data are GFMS Ltd. Value data are WGC calculations based on GFMS data.
Notes: 1. Identifiable end-use consumption excluding central banks. 2. Provisional . 3. “Other retail” excludes bar and primary coin offtake; it represents mainly activity in North America and Western Europe. 4. Exchange Traded Funds and similar products including: LyxOR Gold Bullion Securities, Gold Bullion Securities (Australia), streetTRACKS Gold Shares, NewGold Gold Debentures, iShares Comex Gold Trust, ZKB Gold ETF, GOLDIST, Central Fund of Canada and Central Gold Trust.

Data on the supply and demand for gold are compiled by GFMS Ltd. The company provides a number of tables exclusively for the World Gold Council. Please refer to the notes and copyright information for details regarding the restrictions on disseminating these data. GFMS should be contacted for further information or for historical data. In addition, certain data are available on Bloomberg.