Switzerland: Junction of international gold market

In 2016, gold exports accounted for more than a quarter of total exports, according to figures from Swiss customs. This makes gold Switzerland's second most important export product after chemicals and pharmaceuticals. You wouldn't know that if you looked at the annual report of customs, because there the trade in gold has been deliberately omitted from the calculation.

A spokesperson for the Swiss customs authorities told Swissinfo that the export of gold is not included, because it can give a distorted picture of the Swiss economy. The precious metal as an export product is also subject to large exchange rate fluctuations, which makes it difficult to compare the total exports of different years. In addition, the precious metal is seen by customs more as a form of payment traffic, as it basically acts as an alternative to currency.

A quarter of Switzerland's exports are gold

More than 2,000 tons of gold

As a result, more than 2,000 tonnes of gold exports worth 80 billion Swiss francs are not included in the calculation. By comparison, that volume is equivalent to 80% of global gold mine production in a single year. Until 2014, Swiss customs did not publish any figures on the import and export of gold, but under international pressure and the call for more transparency, the government decided to make this data public.

These statistics have given us insight into the massive shift of physical gold towards Asia, particularly towards China and Hong Kong, in recent years. Customs data confirms that Switzerland is an important hub in the global gold market.

Many gold-producing countries send the precious metal to Switzerland, because there is a large network of smelters and gold vaults there to further distribute the precious metal on the world market. Smelters in the Alpine State process about 2/3 part of all the gold in the world.

Below you can see an overview of all countries in the world that import and export gold, based on figures from 2014. We see that Asia and Europe import by far the most gold from Switzerland. Countries in Africa, Australia and South America hardly get any gold from Switzerland, but they do supply a relatively large amount of precious metal. This is because there are many gold mines in these countries that market their precious metal worldwide via Switzerland.

Which countries export gold?

Source: Observatory for Economic Complexity (click for larger view)

Which countries import gold?

Source: Observatory for Economic Complexity (click for larger view)