Also people need to consider 50 to 65 percent of silver production is a byproduct that isn’t influenced by silver price 10 to 20 percent of silver is recycling that is very price dependent on prices. 25 to 35 percent of silver is primary and are price takers
I think it varies from country. In Australia, more people would be interested in silver but if you come to Singapore, more than 99.9% will be uninterested. On the other hand, people won’t blink an eye to spend $90k on a Toyota vios or Yaris. Why? Because of uncle sam’s dollars and global trade. Faith in the dollars and the purchasing power that comes with it. The american dollars is the mother of all currencies, dollars earned is converted into RMB (SGD and AUD), and from there Chinese princes and princesses spend their parent's RMBs on European luxury goods, handbags, cars, and the chinese build empty apartments and offices, funnelling more dollars to Australia. But Singapore is a financial centre and tax haven, and so attracts a disproportionate amount of dollars and wealthy people, which results in very high income inequality. The poor in Singapore, those that earn $7 a hour buy gold bangles and chains that they wear all the time, weighing maybe 100-200grams. I've even seen a supermarket cashier wearing like 1/2 kg of gold jewellery. But there's only that much you can show off using gold because even 1/2kg of gold is not much wealth over here. To do that, you must own a $240k bmw 3 series car. People here are living in dreamland, what they don't know is that the monetary system is already starting to change because part of the American elite is starting to realise that the strong dollar system is going to backfire on them.
Yeah I was Little India last week (normally i dont venture there) and walked into few gold stores to browse. People from subcontinent loves sure love thier gold. Having said that I might pop back in next week to get a 22ct necklace lol.
I'm quite sure a lot of the buyers there are Indian tourists and what they buy is somehow brought back into indian tax free. With all the smuggling going on, I'm quite sure Indian ownership of gold is way way understated.
I would say gold held by asian citizens is way understated. For example Koreans gift a sizeable amount of gold and there are a industry built around traditional gold gifts My sister last year had a her first baby and on his 100th day party, my nephew was gifted over fifty 24ct “Han Dol Banji” rings and other many other 24ct trinkets. A ”DOL” is 3.75gm so not a shabby haul. Though the amount of gold was inflated by her age 45 so her friends and colleagues have more disposable income. For those wondering why in Korea a babies 100 day was celebrated, it is because there was a time (I presume like all cultures) infant mortality was high in ancient times, but also recently after Korean War infant mortality reinforced a baby’s 100th day into Korean subconscious.
It is for this reason why I think gold can't go up much in the event of a financial crisis like what happened in 1997 because there will be a lot of secondary Asian selling of old gold. In a recession, cash is still king. Even in Singapore, where consumer debt is actually much lower than Korea - most people don't even have mortgages on their homes, I can see some intensive selling of gold when it comes to that. Congrats, the 100 day is something new to me.
