Gold has always been considered as THE safe haven par excellence. This precious metal is not experiencing a crisis, and even less so that of Covid: physical demand has never been as strong as in 2021, and especially in the fourth quarter, since it has historically been the ideal response to the galloping inflation that we have been experiencing since then.

4021 tonnes is the dizzying figure for global demand in 2021: jewellery, coins, ingots or even high-tech. Central banks were thus able to buy 82% more gold than in the previous year, the equivalent of 463 tonnes.

This is mainly thanks to India and China, two huge countries paralysed by the health crisis, which are now making up for lost time: weddings in India and the Lunar New Year festivities in China are two global events that are fond of gold.

Wedding ceremonies that were previously postponed have resumed. Indian families always take the opportunity to save some of their savings by exchanging them for jewellery (rings, necklaces and bracelets) and other gold objects. As for the Chinese, they celebrate the most important holiday of their calendar by buying gold products. The World Gold Council (WGC) considers the recovery of these activities to be one of the key factors behind this exceptional demand for gold.

The technology sector is also not experiencing a crisis and has a growing need for gold to make the components for our mobile phones and other tablets or computers: an increase of 9% to 330 tonnes. It should be noted, however, that in the last quarter of 2021 net purchases by central banks fell to just 48 tonnes, the lowest level since the end of 2010, just after the financial crisis. This disaffection is systematically reflected in the price of an ounce of gold.

Only financial securities indexed to the price of the yellow metal (EFTs) have fallen, mainly in the United States, which is a warning to a market that sometimes lacks clarity and shows a high level of uncertainty about the state of the global economy, the recent downward revision of growth forecasts and the persistent increase in inflation.