Who bought and sold (2026 Q1)
Source: World Gold Council, archived quarterly snapshot. Negative values are net sales.
The main physical corridors
| From | To | What drives the flow |
|---|---|---|
| London | Switzerland | 400 oz Good Delivery bars move to be recast into kilobars for Asia |
| Switzerland | China | Swiss refineries feed the world's largest consumer |
| Switzerland | India | the second-largest consumer market: jewellery and savings |
| UAE (Dubai) | India | the region's re-export and scrap hub for the Middle East and Africa |
| Hong Kong | mainland China | China's historic import window with transparent customs data |
| Australia | Asia | a mining power exporting nearly all output into the region |
| Russia & Central Asia | UAE, China | flows redirected after the 2022 sanctions restrictions |
Per-country-pair volumes (UN Comtrade, HS 7108) live on the country pages; customs data publishes with a 4–8 week lag.
Watch the flows on the live globe
The World Gold home page draws these corridors and reserves on a rotating globe: the Corridors and Reserves layers show the routes and quarterly changes, while price impulses travel between exchange hubs in real time. Open the globe →
Frequently asked questions
Which countries are buying gold right now?
The systematic buyers of recent years are emerging-market central banks: China, Poland, Turkey, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and others. The latest quarterly snapshot of purchases and sales is in the table above; country detail lives on the country pages.
Why does gold physically route through Switzerland?
Switzerland hosts the world's largest refineries: London's 400 oz bars are recast there into kilobars and gram formats preferred by Asian retail. That makes London → Switzerland → China/India the market's busiest corridor.
How can I track the flows myself?
Customs statistics publish with weeks-to-months delay (UN Comtrade, national agencies) — we surface them on country pages. The live proxy is the pulses on our interactive globe plus central-bank activity; the physical shipments themselves are confidential and never disclosed in real time.