Swiss Gold Exports Show Asia Buying More as Investors Sell Bars

23-Apr (Bloomberg) — China and India helped buy up investors’ biggest gold sales in more than a year.

Gold exports to China from the refining hub of Switzerland almost doubled to 46.4 metric tons in March, the most among monthly data starting in January 2014, according to the Swiss Federal Customs Administration. Shipments to India more than doubled to 72.5 tons as imports from the U.K. climbed sixfold.

That’s an indication that gold bars are leaving U.K. vaults for Switzerland, where they’re refined and sent to Asia. India and China, the biggest buyers, boosted purchases in 2013 when investors dumped the metal amid the biggest price rout in three decades. Global sales from gold-backed funds totaled 55.7 tons in March, the most since 2013, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

“The big investor outflows from the U.K. via Switzerland to China and India is a continuation of the flow of metal from West to East,” Matthew Turner, an analyst at Macquarie Group Ltd., said by phone from London.

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PG View: The flow of physical gold from weak hands in the West to strong hands in the East has been going on for some time now, and all those tonnes aren’t coming back.