Gold is an attractive means of helping investors diversify their portfolios. Its relative scarcity supports its long-term investment appeal. But its market size is large enough to make it relevant for a wide variety of investors, from individuals to institutions and central banks.
This Primer gives an overview of the available above-ground stock of gold, the relative size of the financial gold market, and the composition of demand and supply that supports gold’s investment credentials.
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“Gold has been prized for thousands of years. We estimate that approximately 209,000 tonnes of gold have been mined throughout human history, of which around two-thirds has been mined since 1950. And as gold is virtually indestructible, almost all of it is still available in one form or another. To put this into perspective, all of the above-ground stock of gold -worth US$12tn – would fit into a cube with sides of approximately 22m (73ft).”
