Since its discovery, gold has become deep-seated within many cultures across the world. Valued as a currency, a commodity, or simply for its visual beauty, gold has remained a store of value for thousands of years. Now revered as the world’s most precious commodity; gold’s scarcity, uses, and proven performance, all help make gold the ideal investment.
Gold Demand & Supply
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The demand for gold can be broken down into four core
categories - jewellery, investment, technology, and central
banks. Gold demand has been growing steadily in recent
years, as continued volatility has driven investors towards
the safe-haven asset of physical gold. The outbreak of the
Covid pandemic in 2020 in particular sparked another
significant period of investment demand within the gold
market. Subsequent events like the Russian invasion of
Ukraine, and the outbreak of conflict in in the Middle East
in 2023 continue to drive demand.
This period has also seen significant growth in gold demand
from central banks, which saw a record year of gold buying in
2022, and similar levels in 2023. Many countries around the
world have turned away from the dollar as the global reserve
currency, and instead purchased gold as a way to shore up their
national reserves.
On the supply side, mining has become considerably more
expensive due to higher inflation, while many countries
impose increasingly difficult regulations and challenges.
Gold exploration is bringing fewer and fewer discoveries
as time goes by, and companies like The Royal Mint are
turning to new methods of recycling to find new reliable
sources of gold supply.
Gold Price
The gold market has experienced considerable further growth in the gold price since Covid began in 2020. After starting 2020 at just over £1,000 per ounce, gold has risen nearly 50% to reach £1,600 per ounce consistently in 2024, and a new all-time high of £1,696.95 per ounce in late 2023. After a period of rising interest rates, which is typically considered negative for gold as a non-yielding asset, 2024 is expected to see rate cuts as inflation comes down. As such, forecasts for gold suggest further gains to come in 2024, with new records forecast by many analysts.
Despite it's safe haven status the gold market can be a fast-moving and volatile one, and as the base level price for the metal continues to rise, even small percentage swings can start to look quite big. The general trend however is that the gold price continues to rise as the dollar devalues over time, and the gold market remains healthy in 2024.
