Mining: 14% drop in demand for gold worldwide in 2020
Gold had a rather special year 2020. The price of the yellow metal rose from the $ 2,000 per ounce mark before falling to around $ 1,900 per ounce at the end of the year. According to the World Gold Council, demand and supply have fallen, however, mainly because of the coronavirus.
Global demand for gold hit its lowest quarterly total since the 2008 financial crisis last December, at just 783.4 t. This is one of the conclusions of the new report from the World Gold Council, which specifies that it is a decline of 28% year on year.
This situation reflects the contrasting year 2020 experienced by the yellow metal. While the price has continued to climb for several months, demand has followed the opposite path. This decrease is linked to the lack of appetite of jewelry consumers (-34%), who remained stranded at home due to restrictions linked to the coronavirus. The pandemic has also hit the tech sector with a 7% year-on-year drop.
With all these parameters, the annual gold demand fell 14% to 3,759.6 t. This is the first time, we learn, that global demand has fallen below 4,000 tonnes over a year since 2009. It should be noted that the supply of gold has also suffered the effects of the pandemic with a drop of 4 % year-on-year to 4,633 tonnes, the largest annual decrease since 2013.
On January 28, gold was trading at $ 1,841 an ounce on major stock markets around the world.
