PETALING JAYA: The demand for gold bars and coins in Malaysia has increased by 27%, the seventh highest in the world.
This was according to a research by Forex Suggest that analysed global data on central bank gold reserves, consumer demand for jewellery, Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF) holdings and demand per capita to find the biggest gold nations.
In a release issued today, Forex Suggest said the 2022 global gold market has made an impressive recovery after two years of successive decline from the Covid-19 pandemic. Presently, gold mining and investing have an estimated market cap of US$13.2 trillion, which is great news for some of the top gold-producing countries in the world.
The key points of the research:
• With a 693% year-over-year change, Egypt saw the biggest rise in gold bar and coin demand. Arab Finance reported that Egyptian purchases of gold coins and bars jumped by 83% in 2022 to hit 4.4 tonnes.
• With a 374% growth rate, Russia saw the second-highest rise in demand for gold bars and coins. The World Gold Council reported that demand for gold bars and coins grew faster in Russia in 2022 than in any other country, rising to nearly five times the level of 2021. In March, the central bank restricted sales of foreign currency, and on the same day, Vladimir Putin scrapped VAT on gold bar purchases, which sparked a surge in buying.
• Completing the top three is Iran with a 64% increase in demand for gold bars and coins. Similarly to the country’s consumer demand surge, the increased investment in gold bars and coins was spurred by a weak domestic currency, which resulted in soaring gold prices.
• The US is the number one gold nation in the world - producing the highest volume of central bank gold reserves (8,133 tonnes) as well as ETF gold holdings (1,668 tonnes).
• China is the biggest gold mining country in the world - producing 330 tonnes of gold as of 2022.
• Vietnam had the biggest increase in gold jewellery demand - with a 51% increase between 2021 and 2022.
