Key gold market statistics

Gold Investor, February 2019

12 February, 2019

Key gold market statistics

Gold returns are competitive compared to major financial assets

Performance metrics for major global financial assets in US$*

* 1-year and 10-year returns based on data ending 31 December 2018.

**BarCap US Credit includes both government and high grade corporate bonds.

Source: Bloomberg; World Gold Council

Gold was correlated to high-quality bonds in 2018

Weekly return correlation on key assets and gold in US$*

* Year-to-date (YTD) and 10-year correlations based on weekly returns ending 31 December 2018.

** BarCap US Credit includes both sovereign and corporate bonds.

Source: Bloomberg; World Gold Council

Gold performance should be measured in more than one currency

Annual gold returns in various currencies*

* Based on the LBMA Gold Price PM except for the Long US$ Gold Index that is based on the Solactive GLD® Long US$ Gold Index. The Index combines a long position in physical gold with a long position in a basket of currencies that include EUR (57.6%), JPY (13.6%), GBP (11.9%), CAD (9.1%), SEK (4.2%) and CHF (3.6%). For more details see: https://www.solactive.com/complex-indexing/?index=DE000SLA2K90.

** Year-to-date as of 31 December 2018.

Source: Bloomberg; ICE Benchmark Administration; Solactive AG; World Gold Council

Gold trades more than many other major financial assets

Average daily trading volumes in US$*

Based on estimated 1-year average trading volumes as of 31 December 2018, except for currencies that correspond to 2016 volumes due to data availability.

** Gold liquidity includes estimates on over-the-counter (OTC) transactions, and published statistics on futures exchanges, and gold-backed exchange-traded products.

Source: BIS; Bloomberg; German Finance Agency; Japan Securities DealersAssociation; LBMA; UK Debt Management Office (DMO); World Gold Council

Financial gold accounts for more than a third of aboveground gold stocks

Market size (in tonnes and US$ value) for various gold sectors*

* Estimated tonnage as 31 December 2018. US-dollar values calculated using YTD 2018 average LBMA Gold price of US$1,269/oz. Financial gold is defined as the sum of official sector holdings, bars and coins, and ETPs** (74,507 tonnes, US$3tn, 39%).

**ETPs include gold-backed exchange traded funds (ETFs) and similar products.

Source: Bloomberg; Refinitiv GFMS, Thomson Reuters; ICE Benchmark Administration; Respective ETP Providers; World Gold Council

The size of financial physical gold is larger than many stock and bond markets

Market size of major global financial assets in US$*

* As of 31 December 2018 where available, otherwise most recent data published.

** Includes bars, coins, gold-backed exchange-traded products and official sector holdings.

Source: BIS; Bloomberg; Refinitiv GFMS, Thomson Reuters; ICE Benchmark Administration; World Gold Council

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