Record demand for gold coins

Johannesburg - The demand for gold coins has hit an all time high, the SA Gold Coin Exchange said on Friday.

"The rapidly growing demand for gold coins strongly suggests that the gold bull market is well set to extend itself strongly into the future," said chairperson Alan Demby in a statement.

An increasing number of analysts and commentators were predicting strong gold price advances, Demby added.

He said during the course of 2008, the value of the exchange's sales of gold coins, primarily Krugerrands, was a substantial 80% higher than in 2007.

"I accept that exchange has grown its market share, but this has played no more than a minor role in our headlong revenue growth, which I am convinced emanates from a belief that gold is the ultimate hedge against the uncertainty generated by the global financial meltdown," Demby said.

In the past few weeks the legendary Warren Buffet had expressed himself strongly in favour of investing in the yellow metal.

Furthermore, Demby said, UBS Investment Research forecasts gold to hit $2 500 an ounce in the next five years as prospects of either deflation or inflation become more extreme.

He added that Citigroup analysts Alan Heap and Alex Tonks had raised their gold forecast to an average $925 an ounce in 2010, from a previous estimate of $900.

Demby also noted that in the fourth quarter of 2008 compared with the equivalent 2007 quarter, total bullion demand in India, the world's largest gold market, was up 84%.

He added that gold demand in Greater China was up 21% while demand in Thailand soared over 100% and Middle Eastern gold bar and coin demand rocketed 139%.

"Record demand has also spilled into the first quarter of this year, sending total global demand for gold in the form of exchange-traded funds (ETFs), coins, bars and futures past the $100bn mark - for the first time ever," Demby said.

Moreover, gold demand via ETFs shot up by 469 tons - a full 223% over the previous record set in the third quarter of 2008.

According to Demby, coin and bullion demand was expected to be just as strong as the 396% surge in the fourth quarter of 2008. "It should be no surprise, then, that the price of gold continues to trade above its 1980 high of $850 - and rising.

"All the data clearly reveal that we are looking at a bull market more powerful than almost anyone is ready to admit - so powerful that it would not come as a surprise if the price hit US2 000 before the end of next year," Demby said.