First for gold – Gold was still in high demand in the first quarter, central banks continued their record purchases

In the first months of the year, central banks added 289.7 tons of the metal to their gold reserves, the most in the first quarter and the least since 2010, as far back as the records of the World Gold Council go. A year ago, purchases by central banks were equal to the record, when they sold 286 tonnes. The main buyers were the central banks of developing countries – the Turkish central bank bought 30 tons of metal, the German 27 tons and the Indian 19 tons. the nsk central bank currently holds 2,260 tons of metal. Czech National Bank bought five tons of metal in the first quarter. Globally, gold on the total reserves of central banks currently stands at 4.6%.

The demand for investment gold decreased by 28% year-on-year to 198.6 tons. The trend was indicated by the outgoing investor from gold ETFs, which sold 113.7 tons of the metal in the first quarter. A year ago, the volume of metal in the core of exchange-traded funds decreased by 28.6 tons in the first quarter. The effect of the further drop in ETF interest slightly slowed down the 3% growth in demand for gold bars and coins to 312.3 tons.

The decline in demand for gold ETFs can be explained by the continued decline in inflation in the first quarter and the prospect of annual rate cuts by central banks on both sides of the Atlantic, with the expected positive impact of this development on share prices. The total volume of gold in the core of exchange-traded funds decreased by four percent to 3,113 tons in the first quarter.