Switzerland exports more gold to China and India

In the month of November, Switzerland again exported more gold to Asia, according to figures from the Swiss customs. It is the third month in a row that Asian countries have extracted more gold from Switzerland, indicating that demand for the precious metal is picking up again after the relatively weak summer period.

In November, India imported nearly 77 tonnes of gold from Switzerland, while China and Hong Kong both imported more than 34 tonnes of gold last month. These countries import precious metals from Switzerland almost continuously, as in the first 11 months of this year, a total of more than 450 tonnes of gold was brought to India and more than 500 tonnes of gold was taken from Swiss vaults for export to Hong Kong and mainland China.

This year, for the first time, Swiss customs will provide detailed data on its international trade in precious metals. Asset manager Lighthouse made this data transparent in the following graph, which charts the monthly export of gold to different parts of the world.

Switzerland again exported more gold to Asia in November (Source: Lighthouse)

Worldwide, Switzerland is known as a major hub for the physical gold market. Because hundreds of tons of gold go in and out of the country every year, we can use the figures from the Swiss customs as a kind of indicator of the international gold flows. This chart provides proof that there is still a lot of precious metal heading towards Asia.

India and China buy gold

The course of this graph corresponds to the coverage of the Chinese and Indian gold markets. In the summer, we saw a decline in Chinese gold imports via Hong Kong, as well as the premium on the Gold price on the Chinese gold market. In recent months, India has also been importing more gold, which is related to an easing of import restrictions by the Indian government.

India imported 151 tonnes of gold in November, an increase of 38 percent compared to October. As a result, India's trade deficit widened to its highest level in 18 months. As a result of the revision of the import quota, imports have increased phenomenally.