Gold slump: China’s sales plunge as precious metal’s price dips, leaving buyers wary
While China’s interest in gold is unlikely to fade, investment-grade product sales have dwindled after 15 months of retail growth
“During the first two months of the year, I sold an average of 2kg to 3kg of gold each day,” he added. “Now daily sales have slumped to just 100 grams or 200 grams.”
Zhou was left to rue losses over the past two months because of a downturn in global gold prices, with his sales plunging by around 90 per cent.
This hesitation comes as global gold prices have pulled back from record highs amid shifting US interest rate expectations, a stronger dollar and profit-taking.
However, buying interest would be unlikely to dry up because of Chinese people’s age-long tradition in keeping the metal due to their belief that gold represented wealth and auspiciousness, industry insiders said.