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Strategies & Market Trends : 2026 TeoTwawKi ... 2032 Darkest Interregnum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: carranza2 who wrote (71076)	2/16/2011 8:41:19 PM
From: Hawkmoon	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 217573

Never, ever have had a dream about economic stuff. Yeah.. obviously I need a vacation.. LOL!! Hawk

To: carranza2 who wrote (71076)	2/18/2011 1:40:11 AM
From: TobagoJack	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 217573

More good news, just in today's HK paper biz section Mainland gold demand leaps 70pc as investors eye inflation Sales of bars and coins surpass those in US, Germany Sophie Yu Feb 18, 2011 SCMP.com Demand from mainland investors for gold jumped 70 per cent last year as an increasing number of wealthy Chinese saw the precious metal as a hedge against inflation. Investment demand for gold totalled 179.9 tonnes in 2010 while demand from the jewellery sector hit a record 400 tonnes, according to a World Gold Council report. Demand for gold bars and coins surpassed that of the United States and Germany in 2010, making it the second-largest investment market behind India. Global annual demand hit a 10-year high of 3,812.2 tonnes last year, increasing 9 per cent to US$150 billion. There expected to be a "healthy level of demand in 2011", said Eily Ong, investment research manager at the council and author of the report. Ong said Asia, particular China and India, will continue to buoy gold demand. "China's strong gold demand is fuelled by rising income levels, high saving rates and strong economic growth," she said. The report reveals that China and India together constituted 51 per cent of global jewellery, bar and coin demand in 2010. Ong said the main motivations for gold investment in China were concerns over domestic inflation and the poor performance of alternative investments amid continued negative real interest rates on deposits and lacklustre equity market performance. "These factors have combined with expectations of further gold price gains," she said. Kenix Lai, a gold analyst with Sun Hung Kai Financial, said China is expected to contribute to strong demand for gold globally this year. "Mainlanders' purchasing power is rising and they will buy gold and jewellery," she said. "This choice is associated with Chinese tradition." She said given the lacklustre performance of the mainland stock market and Beijing's austerity measures in the overheated property market, gold is seen by local investors as an effective hedge against runaway inflation. Middle-class Chinese are also increasingly recognising gold as a way to store wealth. Lu Wujing, a civil servant in Guangdong, bought a pure gold bracelet for her friend's newborn son recently. The four-gram gift cost her 1,300 yuan (HK$1,535). "The alternative was to give her a red envelope with 1,000 yuan," she said. "But gold will only get more valuable with time, while paper money will not be as valuable." Lai said Beijing's desire to increase the ratio of gold in its asset portfolio would be more good news for the market. "The ratio of gold in China's massive US$2.8 trillion foreign change reserves is 1.8 per cent, which is seriously low." She said gold made up 60 to 70 per cent of the foreign exchange reserves of the US, Germany and Japan. China's store of gold was 1,054 tonnes by 2010 and Lai said the cache had increased only gradually. "Beijing will not like pushing up the price too quickly," she said. "There is a good opportunity for China to increase the ratio of gold to 2 per cent, and higher and higher in the following years." Given the 27 per cent appreciation in the value of gold in 2010, Lai said she expects gold to record historical highs this year. "It might challenge US$1,500 per ounce," she said. Gold hit a one-month high of US$1,382 a troy ounce on Wednesday.