Gold and silver drifted lower this week before a modest recovery Friday morning, which can be put down to bear closing. Meanwhile, gold hit record levels in yuan and yen terms.
Here’s a breakdown of this week’s gold and silver markets.
In another blow to dollar dominance, India and the United Arab Emirates settled an oil trade without converting local currencies to dollars for the first time on Monday, as India’s top refiner made a payment for oil in rupees.
Indian Oil Corp. bought a million barrels of oil from Abu Dhabi National Oil Company in a dollar-free transaction.
There has been a steady migration of gold from West to East over the last three decades.
When the World Gold Council published its first Gold Demand Trends report 30 years ago, Asian demand made up 45% of the world’s total. Today, the Asian share of global gold demand is approaching 60%.
The Indian central bank has announced another round of demonetization with a plan to withdraw 2,000-rupee notes from circulation. The announcement led to a big jump in gold bullion sales.
The 2,000-rupee note will remain legal tender, but they will have to be deposited or exchanged for smaller denominations by Sept. 30.
Every government policy has consequences – some intended and some unintended.
There is at least one serious unintended consequence of the economic sanctions levied against Russia after its invasion of Ukraine – an erosion of the US dollar dominance.
Silver demand in India is expected to increase with the introduction of new investment products. India already ranks as one of the world’s biggest silver consumers.
This is one of several silver-related stories in the latest edition of Silver News published by the Silver Institute.
India’s love for gold is well-known. It is the second largest gold-consuming country in the world behind China. But Indians also have an affinity for silver.
Last year, silver imports into India hit a new record of 304 million ounces. That crushed the previous import high of 260 million ounces set in 2015.
We recently reported that the Federal Reserve plans to launch a 12-week pilot program in partnership with several large commercial banks to test the feasibility of a central bank digital currency (CBDC). The US isn’t alone in experimenting with digital currency. India is working on developing a digital rupee and recently announced the second phase of testing.
After successfully running a pilot program to test its digital currency at the wholesale level, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has announced it will test the digital rupee in a retail setting.
Gold is migrating from the West to the East.
As Bloomberg described it, many western investors – particularly at the institutional level – are dumping bullion. Meanwhile, Asian buyers are taking advantage of lower prices to snap up less expensive jewelry, coins, and bars.
Gold demand in India was healthy in September and the outlook is strong moving forward.
Healthy retail demand in September drove the local price briefly into a premium of $2 to $3 per ounce early in the month. It was the first time gold had been in premium since May.
