The Demand For Gold Is Going Nowhere

Despite last year's 30% price plunge, people around the world continue to buy gold.

"First quarter gold demand held steady at 1,074.5 tonnes, maintaining the lofty levels seen last year," said the World Gold Council in its new Gold Demand Trends report.

Here's a little more color:

Jewellery demand made moderate gains of 3% largely due to lower gold prices compared with Q1 2013 and seasonal factors, notably Chinese New Year, which contributed to record first-quarter jewellery demand in China. Movements within the investment space were more striking: net ETF flows were zero, compared with 177t of outflows in Q1 2013, while bar and coin investment unsurprisingly fell far short (-39%) of the record levels of demand seen a year ago. The net impact on Q1 investment demand was minimal: it was down by just 6t (2%) year-on-year.

In the official sector, central banks continued to purchase gold for its diversification and risk management properties, adding 122.4t, while substitution to other materials continued to impact gold demand in the technology space - down 4% year-on-year....

Demand isn't growing, but it certainly hasn't plunged either.