global gold demand to recover in 2010 -wgc

Global gold demand to recover in 2010 -WGC
A pick up in jewellery and investor demand should help boost gold demand during the year an official at the World Gold Council

Posted: Thursday , 18 Mar 2010

MILAN (Reuters) -

Global gold demand is expected to recover in 2010 after a fall last year, helped by a pick-up in jewellery demand and firm investment demand, a senior official at the World Gold Council said.

"I would expect to see a plus sign at the end of the year," Rozanna Wozniak, investment research manager at the industry-funded WGC, told Reuters on the sidelines of a presentation on Thursday.

Global gold demand fell 11 percent in 2009, hammered by a 20 percent drop in jewellery demand which accounted for 52 percent of the overall demand last year. Identifiable investment demand rose 7 percent in 2009.

Jewellery demand, which started picking up at the end of last year, is seen gathering strength this year as signs of economic recovery improve consumer appetites, especially in core markets such as India and the Middle East, Wozniak said.

WGC expects central banks -- many of which were sellers of gold in the 1990s -- to continue buying the metal as a monetary asset and a means to diversify reserves amid currency uncertainties, Wozniak said.

European central banks have been reducing gold sales while non-European central banks are likely to be present on the buy side this year, she said without naming those banks.

Investment demand for gold is likely to be strong this year, she said.

(Reporting by Svetlana Kovalyova, editing by Anthony Barker)

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