ISTANBUL - The World Gold Council (WGC) has stated that the demand for gold increased 95 percent in the second quarter (April-May-June) of the year in Turkey while it decreased in the world.
WGC stated that the gold demand was affected positively due to economical uncertainties and despite economic and political disturbances and increasing gold prices, the gold demand of investors reached 19 tonnes in the first half of the year and the proportion was doubled when compared with last year.
Turkey had a good season in tourism in 2002 and this could affect the figures in the third quarter (July-August-September) positively.
WGC announced that on the contrary to the increasing gold demand in Turkey in the second quarter, the gold demand of the world decreased 14 percent in the same period.
The gold demand which was 850 tonnes in second quarter of last year decreased to 729 tonnes in the same period of 2002 due to increasing gold prices and stagnation in global economy. However, as the prices increased in the same period, the annual sales did not change too much.
The demand of gold which was used in industry reduced 6.4 percent to 74.4 tonnesin the same period of last year and the demand for gold for investment decreased 11.7 percent to 56.8 tonnes.
WGC stated that there was an extraordinary tendency to gold in Japan which was in a heavy economic stagnation for years and the demand increased 40 percent and reached 30 tonnes.
Meanwhile, there was a selling tendency in Western European countries due to the increases in gold prices with transition to single currency Euro.