Gold: China emerges as top global consumer

Beijing-China (Nov 29)   China continues to be the largest consumer of largest varieties of commodities produced in the world; and as 2013 draws to a close, the dragon country is going to be the top global consumer of the hottest and most valuable commodity: gold.

Latest data from the World Gold Council says that China is set to beat India as the biggest consumer of gold as the Chinese demand for gold in 2013 is forecast to be a whopping 1,000 tonnes.

For several decades, India used to be the world’s largest gold consumer with Indians buying anything between 600 to 800 tonnes of the bullion metal every year. Indians continue to buy gold despite the economic recession that is prevelent in the country; but the Chinese buying spree seems to be fast overtaking India.

“From raw rubber to gold, from grain commodities to oil, from vegetables to meat products, China is surging ahead of other countries as the largest consumer. There is no country to beat the consumer spending that is alive and kicking across China,” said David Lew, a Beijing-based commodity analyst.

According to the Gold Council data, China's demand for jewellery, bars and coins rose 30 per cent to 996.3 tonnes in the year to September.

But in India, the largest gold consumer so far, gold consumption increased only by 24 per cent to touch 977 tonnes.

The report says that Mainland Chinese themselves bought 147.9 tonnes of gold in October month, including scrap gold, compared with 116.3 tonnes in September.

The gold consumption was three times higher than the 47.5 tonnes last year.

In October, China imported a whopping 131 tonnes of gold from Hong Kong alone.