by Lawrie Williams
Sharps Pixley
With the latest stats now available from the Swiss Customs Administration, the hugely anomalous pattern of gold flows in and out of the nation we have noted before are continuing. Normal gold exporters have become importers, and vice versa – a pattern which we have put down to the combination of the big rise in the gold price this year (around US$250), coupled with a significant fall-off in Asian demand.
Switzerland, which hosts some of the world’s largest, and busiest, gold refineries, is major conduit for gold coming from producing nations and from those which vault much of the world’s gold for re-refining and export to the world’s major consumers, with its refineries specialising in refining and re-refining gold into the sizes most in demand in the gold consuming world. So, the gold movements in and out of this small Alpine nation are hugely significant in terms of monitoring global gold flows.