Young Chinese spurn traditional investments in favour of gold

investing.com:

By Casey Hall and Amy Lv

SHANGHAI/BEIJING (Reuters) — Gold buyers in China are getting younger, as a property market downturn, weakening stocks and currency and low bank deposit interest rates have left them with dwindling options to save for rainy days in a sputtering economy.

The trend underscores heightening uncertainty about growth prospects in the world's second-largest economy, which has not recovered from COVID-19 lockdowns as fast as consumers and job hunters had expected.

«The employment market has not been very good,» said Linda Liu, 26, who works for a pharmaceuticals company in Beijing, but worries about job stability. «Buying gold makes me feel better.»

«I want gold jewellery instead of diamonds for my wedding.»

China is the world's top buyer of physical gold and analysts say this year it has been an increasingly important driver behind a rally in global spot gold prices, which hit all-time highs on Monday.

Analysts expect Chinese demand for the safe haven metal to remain high as economic growth grinds lower in coming years and foreign investment outflows weigh on the yuan, while the property market is still looking for a bottom.

«Incomes are not really appreciating, real estate is not really appreciating, the stock market is not really appreciating,» said Jacques Roizen, managing director of consulting at Digital Luxury Group in Shanghai.

«Gold is a little bit of a unicorn in this environment.»

Gold and silver jewellery have been among the best performing consumer goods in China this year, with a 12% rise in value year-on-year in January-October, outpaced only by garments, according to the latest retail sales data.

A Chinese consumer survey released by jewellery firm Chow Tai Fook in late October found