Faced with turbulent times, people are flocking to the ancient safe-haven asset gold. The 800-year-old Austrian Mint is one of the oldest and largest gold coin producers in the world. Conservative investment Austrians, in the face of the epidemic, the Ukrainian war, and inflation, became obsessed with gold. This gold rush led to Mints producing gold coins faster than demand.
The Austrian Mint was established in 1194 to make coins from the silver ransom paid by Richard the Lionheart after he was captured near Vienna. It has a history of more than 800 years and is responsible for the production of Austrian euro coins. Other coins are also produced, such as gold coins and commemorative coins.
Austria is a financially conservative country. Like the Germans, they are used to hoarding cash and gold during public crises. For the older generation, gold has a safety factor. Whenever things are a little uncertain, they switch back to holding gold coins. They think that no matter what How to sell gold.
Today’s situation can be described as a class threat to Austrians. The Austrian Mint said gold demand is now the highest since 1989. The CEO of the Mint said in an interview with media press that the demand for gold has never been so high before this year. Now the sales volume is three times the production capacity of the mint, and the customer source covers three generations old, middle, and young.
Austrians bought a lot of gold during the epidemic, buying more gold in two and a half years than in the five years before the epidemic. Although the price has risen, the demand for gold in the first half of the year is even higher than in the first half of 2020 when the epidemic began, which means that people are rushing into gold, a safe-haven asset.
More prosperous in the second half of the year. The Austrian Mint sold more than 1.8 million ounces of gold at the end of November, nearly surpassing the 2 million ounce record since the global financial crisis in 2009. Sales will continue to be strong in December as gold is a traditional Christmas gift. Not only in Austria, but the gold rush is also a global phenomenon, and mints in other major countries are now in short supply.
Central banks are also stepping up gold purchases. During times of economic and geopolitical uncertainty and high inflation, banks have also turned to gold as a store of value. The latest data from the World Gold Council (WGC) shows that central banks in various countries increased their gold purchases significantly in the third quarter, buying 399 tons in the third quarter, an annual increase of 341%, also a record quarter. Turkey, Uzbekistan, India, and Qatar were the biggest buyers of gold this quarter, but central banks that did not disclose their purchases also bought large quantities, including China and Russia, the data showed.
The report pointed out that the rate of accumulation of gold reserves by central banks this year is the highest since 1967, and will continue to increase their gold holdings in a few months. As for the future trend of gold prices, the market generally expects that the sharp drop after reaching US$ 2,000 in March and August 2020 will not repeat itself. After reaching the US$ 1,800 mark in December, next year’s interest rate hikes will slow down and the economic recession will drive gold prices upwards. The probability is high.
The market expects that, in addition to precious metals doing well, 2023 will be a general commodities boom, including hard asset commodities such as gold, silver, and platinum. ING US economists predict that inflation will drop sharply in 2023, and the Federal Reserve is expected to start cutting interest rates in the second half of next year. Under the loose policy, gold prices are expected to rise in 2023, reaching $ 1,850 an ounce in the fourth quarter.
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