As Global Gold Demand Soars, the World Gold Council Reports a 12% Decline in Global Gold Demand in the Second Quarter of 2015.
Official Government Gold Import and Independent Sales Data Seemingly Contradict the World Gold Council Report.
Does the World Gold Council report capture the true nature of global gold demand?
The World Gold Council Second Quarter 2015 Gold Demand Report
The World Gold Council (WGC), sponsor of the gold ETF, SPDR Gold Shares (GLD) and owner of a minority stake in Bullion Vault through an investment via WGC member Lord Rothchild’s RIT Capital partners , recently reported second quarter gold demand as down 12% year over year to a six year low.
The World Gold Council report has been reproduced by FT, Bloomberg , Reuters and other financial news outlets.
Nick Laird of Sharelynx questions the WGC second quarter gold demand report and writes :
“Over seven of the last nine months demand has been greater than production. Import demand has never been higher – ever. The statistics for these charts (below) are from from the respective countries own imports – they are gross numbers. These are genuine stats from the various countries respective governments. Seems to me that the WGC are not doing their job.!!! Why are they not promoting gold but rather hiding how strong demand is??? One must ponder this question?”
Mr. Laird provides these two charts as evidence of strong global gold demand:
Mr.Laird’s charts show gold imports through May. The WGC report covers April-June. Global gold demand, however, strengthened in June from the United States to Asia and has ramped up significantly since then.
Here is a further survey of global gold demand.
China:
Withdrawals on the Shanghai Gold Exchange are running 34% higher than last year and at a record pace:
The Wall Street Journal takes note of increase in July Chinese gold sales.