According to Anan Fakhreddin, managing director of the World Gold Council, Middle East and Turkey, Middle East is likely to witness better gold sales in 2010 than 2009, backed by rising demand and stabilizing markets, as per the news published by Khaleej Times on January 8, 2010.

 

Due to higher disposable incomes, consumers in Middle East are well defying current high gold prices and is increasingly going for gold purchases, thus supporting the industry.

 

Moreover, people in this region are showing higher interest in gold, as they believe the metal as a safe investment. Consumers here are also concentrating on the significance of gold hedge. In addition, people are now well informed of the prospects of investing in gold, which is further leading to increase sales figures for gold.

 

Such a trend was also observed in 2008, when investments made in gold in the Middle East region grew 38% compared with Q4 2007. Saudi Arabia witnessed a massive hike of 300% in demand for investing in gold. The growth was 67% in Egypt and 2% in other Gulf countries.

 

Gold jewellery sales in the UAE augmented by 17% in 2008 to surpass Dh13.7 Billion as compared to sales worth Dh11.4 Billion in 2007. However, there was a 1% increase in the total demand for gold in the Middle East in Q4 2008 as compared to Q4 2007.

 

Moreover, it is also to be noted that in an attempt to broaden the horizons or say spread more and more information about gold throughout Middle East, World Gold Council is all set to introduce a new gold jewellery brand, basically targeting the middle income households and above, chiefly for the UAE and the Saudi markets. This new brand will be available to the customers in 18, 21 and 22 Karats, and will focus on women who purchase gold jewellery to express their power and confidence.

 

According to a Research Analyst at RNCOS, “Middle East has turned out to be a big gold consumer. It is the region where 90% of the gold is bought in the form of jewellery. This trend of buying gold as an investment is expected to continue because a further rise is anticipated in gold prices. Consequently, gold investors will churn huge profit.”