World Gold Council

An unprecedented 58 billion Turkish Liras ($3bn) was invested in gold in the first quarter of 2023 in Türkiye, according to the World Gold Council (WGC).

Bar and coin investment in Türkiye reached phenomenal levels in the first quarter, breaching 50 tons for the first time on record, said the council's latest edition of the Gold Demand Trends report.

A record rise in demand for gold is being reported around the world, with central banks worldwide ramping up their purchases, reported the Financial Times, citing data from the World Gold Council. Analysts believe that gold buying by regulators has reached a 55-year high.

Türkiye's gold imports leaped more than 1,700 percent in September from the same month of 2021 to stand at 39,000 kilograms, according to data from Borsa Istanbul's Precious Metals and Diamond Markets.

This marked the highest level since January 2010, when gold imports stood at 44,210 kilograms.

Türkiye's gold imports this year amounted to 140,126 kilograms.

A surge in gold purchases by central banks to the highest since 1967 helped push global demand for the metal up 4 percent last year, the World Gold Council (WGC) said on Jan. 31.

In the first quarter of this year, the global gold demand decreased sharply. This was announced by the World Gold Council, AFP reported.

The latest World Gold Council report shows Turkey has sharply ramped up gold buying with both the central bank and ordinary people joining the rush.

"Bar and coin purchases, a measure of investment demand, were 47 metric tons so far in 2017, compared with 14.8 tons in the same period a year ago," ZeroHedge quotes the report as saying.

The Treasury has completed technical works to issue "gold bonds and gold-based lease certificates" by the end of the year, in an attempt to lure tons of "under-the-pillow" gold back into the economy, Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Şimşek has said. 

The imbalances in the economic strength of euro area countries make the continued function of the single currency area a primary concern, said former US Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan in an interview with the World Gold Council.

Demand for gold rose in 2016 to a three-year high, aided by keen investment appetite for the precious metal, the World Gold Council said in a report on Feb. 3.

Total demand for gold, whose twin drivers are jewelry and investment buying, advanced two percent to 4,309 tons compared with 2015, the London-based industry body WGC said in a report.

The global demand for gold dropped to its lowest level in five years last year, the World Gold Council stated in a report released on Feb. 12.

Consumer demand for gold fell by 4 percent from 2013, as slow economic growth in Asia dampened sales of jewelry.