Gold price up 21.6 per cent year to date
News Arnulf Hinkel, financial journalist – 12.08.2024
In the first seven months of 2024, the gold price has risen more sharply than at any time since the turn of the millennium. The figures are even higher looking at gold's performance in a 12-month comparison. Globally, the precious metal increased in price by an average of 22.5 per cent in July 2024, and by as much as 23.1 per cent in June, according to the latest data from Reuters Eikon. Considering that the average annual performance of gold since 2000 has been 9.3 per cent, this once more highlights the well above-average performance in the current year.
Gold has performed better in the eurozone than in the USA
The global market price of gold in US dollars usually performs somewhat better than the euro price, as the long-term average price in both currencies shows: since the turn of the millennium, the gold price has risen by an average of 9.1 per cent in the USA, but only 8.8 per cent in the eurozone. So far in 2024, however, the price of US gold has increased by 18.8 per cent, while euro gold has risen by 21.0 per cent. Somewhat weaker than in the eurozone, gold also performed strongly in the UK at 17.5 per cent, India at 19.4 per cent and China at 20.7 per cent. However, the top performers in the first seven months of this year are the Japanese gold price with a rise of 26.1 per cent and the Swiss gold price with 23.8 per cent.
Gold is and will remain primarily a long-term investment, as year-on-year comparisons prove
As impressive as the performance of the precious metal has been not only since the introduction of the euro, the annual performance of gold also clearly shows how important a long-term investment strategy is. For example, the price of gold in the eurozone has risen year on year 20 times in the 24.5 years since the turn of the millennium, usually by double digits, and by up to 38.6 per cent per annum. In the remaining five cases, however, the price of the precious metal decreased – usually only in the very low single-digit range, but once by 30.9 per cent.
