ALEC HOGG: Well, that gold price is now trading at $990/oz. It has suddenly come to life. Paul Walker is the chief executive of GFMS, and he joins us from Paris. Paul, on Mineweb, Moneyweb’s international website today, Lawrie Williams wrote a story about China pushing the idea of buying gold to its 1.3bn population. There was a programme on Central China Television explaining to the public how easy it is to buy gold, and this is being interpreted – in some quarters, anyway – as part of the reason why the gold price seems to be sprinting towards $1000. Is that wishful thinking?
PAUL WALKER: Well, I don’t think as much as wishful thinking – it’s actually been a story that’s been around for some time. If you have a look at GFMS data on China, it’s been the one outstanding growth market throughout this bull rally. It’s outperformed every other gold market both in value and, most important, quantity terms from the perspective of supply and demand balances in this market. So it’s already to an extent in the price and there’s no doubt that growth in China, ongoing.
