Gold demand will continue to remain robust throughout 2011, on the back of another strong quarterly performance and sustained demand for jewellery in India and China and uncertainty over the US economy and the dollar, the World Gold Council said on Thursday.

“High investment demand across the world, strong demand in India and China, the continued strength of the technology sector together with central bank purchasing demonstrates gold’s diverse demand drivers. We anticipate continued strong demand during the rest of 2011,” WGC Managing Director, Investment, Mr Marcus Grubb said in a release here.

The prevailing global socio-economic conditions will continue to drive investment demand for gold, including continued uncertainty over the US economy and the dollar, ongoing European sovereign debt concerns, global inflationary pressures and continued tensions in the Middle East and North Africa, WGC Gold Demand Trends report for Q1 2011 said.

Similarly, sustained momentum in Indian and Chinese jewellery demand will support the growth throughout 2011.

This was seen in India during the recent ‘Akshaya Tritiya’ and the beginning of the wedding season that boosted extensive purchasing supported by dip in gold price, it said.

The net purchasing by the official sector is also likely to continue in 2011 as central banks are turning to gold as a means of diversifying their reserves into an asset, it said.

Central bank purchases jumped to 129 tonne in the quarter, exceeding the combined total of net purchases during the first three quarters of 2010.

The demand in the first quarter of 2011 grew by 11 per cent to 981.3 tonne from to 881.0 tonne in the first quarter of 2010 due to rise in demand for bars and coins and an improvement in jewellery demand in key markets.

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