In May I ran across some statistics regarding the global gold trade in 2006. Dubai is apparently rising as the new center of the gold trade, taking over from Amsterdam.
According to GFMS Gold Survey (2006) the world's production of gold (2,919 tonnes) is distributed geographically in the following proportions; to China (800); India (700); the Middle East (535); Europe (444); North America (235); Russia (87); South America (75); and Australia (10).
Lightly crunching the numbers, that means that China and India combined consumed over half the annual production for 2006. Add in the contribution from the Middle East and recycled petrodollars, and the proportion rises to over two-thirds. It's reasonable to infer that the price of gold to a large degree represents the fortunes of the emerging economies of China and India, along with a lesser contribution from the price of oil.
