Indonesia Consumer Insights Report: Gold for the Nation

A brief macro-overview of Indonesia

Indonesia's economy has maintained solid growth, averaging around 5% annually from 2021 through 2024, and is projected to remain within this range in 2025. Inflation has remained within the Bank Indonesia's target range, with the latest standing at 2.65% in September 2025¹. Following a soft patch in Q1’25, growth improved in Q2 (Chart 1), with exports and investment providing the bulk of the positive contribution quarter-on-quarter. Part of Indonesia’s recent export story comes from nickel, with the January 2020 ban on ore products resulting in the development of domestic processing. This, supported by strong demand from China’s EV industry, has made Indonesia the world's top nickel exporter. 

While Indonesia’s growth has been relatively firm since late 2023, the benefits to households appear challenging in 2025. Wage growth was solid through 2023 and 2024, but it might show signs of easing this year amid a softer global backdrop. The current drag on consumption could reflect income softness rather than price pressures. For investors, this environment of slowing wage momentum and macro uncertainty may reinforce the appeal of an asset class such as gold.

Over 2024 and 2025, gold has been the best-performing asset in local terms. Gold, priced in Indonesian rupiah, returned 32% in 2024, with another double-digit return in 2025 y-t-d (44%)². Gold has outperformed both local and global equities and bonds in both years.

We wanted to find out whether gold has been on the minds (and in the decision-making matrix) of Indonesian investors. To do this, we commissioned a global market research agency to conduct a large-scale online survey. The study captured responses from 2,000 Indonesian investors aged 18 to 65, with varying income levels and ages. The fieldwork took place between August and September 2024 (see Appendix), which is before the current bull run we are seeing in 2025.

Indonesian investor insights

Behind savings, gold is most widely held among Indonesian investors

When asked about the types of investments investors currently own, 74% of survey respondents indicated savings accounts. Behind savings, though, results show that gold is the most widely held. Two in three Indonesians (67%) hold gold investments in some form, such as high-carat gold jewellery, gold bars and coins and gold exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

The survey also captured allocation levels across four main gold product categories, with investors indicating the percentage of their portfolio each represented. Allocation appears broad-based with gold ETFs and other gold securities concentrated within a 1-10% range.

Looking at the time held for each form of gold allocation, the survey finds that physical forms of gold tend to be held for an extended period of time. The average holding time for gold bars, coins, and fine gold jewellery is 6 years, whereas for gold ETFs and other gold securities, it is 4 years.

Why people invest: security and peace of mind in times of need

So, what does the profile of a gold investor in Indonesia look like and why do they invest? Based on our survey, the Indonesian gold investor is more likely to be female, driven by ownership of gold jewellery – 50% of females in our survey own gold jewellery compared to just 34% of males.

When asked about what they are saving and investing for, close to half of the respondents indicated the purpose was “an emergency fund in times of need”. Retirement provisions and an inheritance for future generations are also on their minds.

When asked about general attitudes to investing, Indonesian investors cited the need to improve future financial security and a long term investment approach, as well as an interest in investing and a desire to learn more.

One of their concerns is investing amid current economic volatility (Chart 9). Investors also prefer to keep their investments simple and look to reputable financial institutions and experts for financial advice.

We believe that this appreciation for simplicity is key; investors need to become familiar with routes into owning gold in their own portfolios and be aware of how gold can help meet their financial objectives.

Respondents who currently hold gold in their portfolios were also asked about the reasons for continuing to hold their investments (Table 1). Overall, Indonesian investors who have allocations to gold, continue to hold it because they are confident it will gain in value in the long-term value, especially physical forms of gold. Investors holding gold bars and coins do so because they expect their investment to perform consistently in uncertain times. Investors cite currency hedging as a reason for continuing to hold gold ETFs.

Understanding barriers and unlocking opportunities

Gold is generally well regarded within Indonesian society. Its attributes, such as a store of value and ease of selling in times of need, are well known. Those who have invested in gold understand its attributes; they know that it is an asset class easy to enter and exit, and they highlight gold’s highly liquid nature.

We asked respondents who ever invested in gold why they chose to invest in gold (Chart 10). “Easy to sell”, “low volatility” and “easy to buy” feature as top three reasons for this group. We also asked respondents who had never invested in gold before what they thought were the reasons for those who do; “easy to sell” also featured as a key reason.

Although some investors are very familiar with gold, others may not be. To understand the barriers to investing in gold, we asked those who invested in gold how difficult or easy it was to make their first gold investment. 17% of investors said that “understanding the process of investing in gold” was difficult for them, while 12% said it was challenging to find relevant information about gold.  

We also wanted to examine barriers for lapsed gold investors, whom we defined as those who had purchased gold within the past 5 years but did not do so in the past 12 months. These respondents indicated that higher gold prices, not having available funds, and difficulty in predicting in a good time to invest were the top barriers to them investing in gold.

We asked those who had never invested in gold if they had ever considered doing so. Out of this group, 73% had at some point considered investing but had decided against it, while the remaining 27% had never considered it.

Among the top reasons investors give for never investing in gold are a lack of knowledge about managing gold investments, difficulty in predicting the best time to invest, and concerns about buying compromised products.

The opportunities

Our research leads us to the conclusion that information is central for investors who are keen to invest in gold. This is especially relevant when we consider that most respondents had considered investing in gold at some point in their life.

Information is key in investing in gold. From obtaining information on how to invest for the first time to understanding what a comfortable level of investment might be for various budgets, the process can be complex.

Finding the right way to invest in gold. Accessing the right form or product can help overcome some of the barriers. As mentioned, with price being a barrier, understanding the different products which can accommodate an allocation to investments at a lower threshold can help investors make better-informed decisions.

Gold, an asset for modern portfolios. Portfolios need to weather stresses, anticipated or not, and one constant in such scenarios is the balance gold provides. Comparing gold to other major asset classes highlights its risk-diversification attributes, especially during difficult times and when global bond-equity correlations are rising.

Conclusion

Indonesia is at an inflexion point. Growth has shown encouraging signs on the back of exports; however, wage softness, mid-band inflation and uncertainty keep households focused on resilience. Our survey shows that gold is already mainstream – valued for its liquidity, security and protection against rupiah weakness.

Our Indonesian consumer insights survey sought to uncover how gold is regarded within investor portfolios and what opportunities could lie ahead:

• Gold is well-regarded in Indonesian portfolios, and it is the most widely held form of investment after savings
• Gold fits well with the financial objectives for Indonesians, especially in ensuring long-term value
• While Indonesian investors generally understand some of gold’s attributes, education remains key in addressing perceived barriers to investment. (Appendix) 

Sample

The research was conducted in Indonesia using an online self-completion survey with a total of 2,000 investors aged between 18 and 54 years.

Participants were screened according to their investment behaviour. Investors were defined as people who claimed to have invested in at least one of a pre-defined list of investment products in the past 12 months. Those who had only added to a savings account in the past 12 months were also required to have invested in another of the investment products from the pre-defined list in the past five years.

Quotas and data weighting

Quotas were applied across age, gender, region and working status.

Specific definitions and references in the report:

• ‘Gold NET’ is defined as gold bars or coins, gold-backed exchange traded funds, other gold securities, fine gold jewellery and gold accumulation plans
• ‘Gold investors’ / ‘Current gold investors’ are those who claim to currently hold any of these gold products in their portfolios
• ‘Ever invested in gold’, ‘Past 12 months gold investors’ (P12M) and ‘Past five years gold investors’ (P5Y) use the same definitions with regard to specific gold investments made within the indicated timeframe, as do those who ‘consider investing in gold in next 12 months’ (N12M).

Attitude statements with responses used a four-point scale: References to ‘feel positive’, feel negative’, ‘confident’, ‘not confident’ refer to the netted answers of the top two codes (‘very positive’ and ‘somewhat positive’) or to the netted answers of the bottom two codes (‘very negative’ and ‘somewhat negative’).

‘High value investors’, ‘medium value investors’ and ‘low value investors’ definitions are based on overall claimed value of the portfolio. The bands are determined by the distribution of portfolio values.

In questions relating to product investment, financial goals, information sources and certain other factors, respondents were asked to select from a pre-coded list (with the option of giving an ‘other specify’ response). 

Differences between the groups of interest are based on two-tailed significance tests with 95% level of confidence.

Indexing calculation was applied to some of the data in the report. Differences over an index of 120 or under an index of 80 are highlighted; derived via direct comparison of a specific data point to the average of all responses in that group.