According to the Thompson Reuters GFMS survey, People’s Republic of China is the world’s largest gold consumer. So, China purchased 1,189.8 tons of the precious metal that is 32% more than in 2012. Moreover, the demand demonstrated a fivefold increase since 2003. Chinese jewellery fabrication moved up to 724 tons; for the first time ever, the country outpaced India in terms of gold consumption. Indian consumption, in its turn rose by 5% to 987.2 tons compared to 2012.
China uses gold primarily for investment reasons and picks the samples with high purity, The Financial Times said on January 23. Most of the sales came from the 24 carat gold products. The gold bar demand boosted by 366,000 tons. However, in terms of gold coins, People’s Republic of China gave ground to Turkey. That was the gold price decline of 23% that sparked such a spurt in the demand in China.
For the last several years, China has become one of the leading gold producers. According to The Financial Times estimates, the country’s output came in at 437.3 tons in 2013. In 2009, the People’s Bank of China reported on the gold holdings totaling 1,054 tons in 2009. GFMS suggests that in 2012 and 2011 China produced 413.1 and 371 tons of gold correspondingly. The first forecasts saying that China can overtake India in terms of gold consumption were released in autumn 2012.
