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Gold demand dropped 17 percent in the final three months of last year as prices at their highest in 27 years deterred purchases by jewelers and retail investors, the producer-funded World Gold Council said.

China became the second-biggest gold buyer last year, overtaking the U.S. Purchases by Chinese retail investors and jewelers climbed 20 percent in the fourth quarter. Gold prices rose to a 27-year high of $843.24 an ounce during the quarter.

Buyers in China ``reacted much more positively to large changes in the price,'' Philip Olden, managing director in charge of marketing for the Gold Council, said in a phone interview from London yesterday. ``If the price is high and volatile, then it will deter buyers'' elsewhere.

Investors put a record $8.1 billion in the gold market in the quarter, with assets in exchange traded funds such as StreetTracks Gold Trust in the U.S. at $1.96 billion, up 26 percent from a year earlier. Investments across 11 countries totaled 869 tons by the end of 2007.

Zdroj:

20.02.2008

"In the absence of the gold standard, there is no way to protect savings from confiscation through inflation. There is no safe store of value."   Alan Greenspan