Asian countries together imported over 600 tonnes of gold in the first six months of this year, according to the latest figures from the Swiss Customs Administration. Despite the fact that gold exports to Asia have come down a little over the last few months, the total year-to-date is still on par with the amounts of gold exported in the first half of last year. A decline in the price of gold and the expectation of rising rates in the US so far didn’t impact gold demand in Asia to the downside.
Asia keeps buying gold
The countries importing the largest volumes of gold from Switzerland in June were India (21.48 tonnes), Hong Kong (15.91 tonnes), China (14.04 tonnes), Iran (12.85 tonnes) and Singapore (6.64 tonnes). With the exception of Iran, these are the countries importing the biggest volumes of gold on a very regular basis.
Looking at the total exports of gold over the first six months of this year, we see India and Hong Kong in the lead with about 210 tonnes of gold imported each. China takes the third position, importing 137,5 tonnes of gold from Switzerland in the first half of this year. Singapore and Saudi-Arabia fill the fourth and fifth position with gold imports of 61 and 28,5 tonnes of gold respectively.
From all the gold Switzerland has exported in the first half of 2015, more than 90% went to emerging Asian economies. All the other countries combined take up the remaining less that 10% of total gold buying from Switzerland. The first graph shows the monthly net gold exports, the second one shows the cumulative volume of the same exports.
Monthly net gold exports from Switzerland
Total net gold exports from Switzerland in first half of 2015
