The Brains Trust, page-10704

Some further thoughts on gold and Asia's importance on the demand side .Consider just the following countries and population figures"
China 1.4 billion
India 1.3 billion
Indonesia 266 million
Thailand 70 million
Vietnam 96 million
for a total of 3.13 billion people .Now all these countries have a passion and cultural attachment to gold and as their middle class expands they will use more of their income to buy gold for their personal bank.
If 10% of that total buy 5 grams of gold each year the total is 1.566 billion grams of gold = 50.19 million oz
or if the same 10% buy 10 grams of gold each year for their "personal bank" the total then becomes 100.38 million ounces being "consumed/saved by just those 5 countries. Americans, Australians and Europeans just don't have the same cultural attachment to gold and 10% likely don't buy much gold each year ,rather they spend their money on consumer goods which have little resale value a few years after their purchase.
I think westerners have to live in Asia to really grasp the significance of gold to this enormous population, next time you are somewhere in Asia walk past a gold jewelry store .....I walked past two on the weekend and it was 10 deep at the counters and even the smallest purchases were at least 3 0r 4 grams ,some were many multiples of that.
I think if it hasn't already happened then in coming years it will certainly be the case that the bulk of the worlds gold resides in Asia