China’s 2025 gold consumption slips for second year in a row

China’s gold consumption dropped for a second consecutive year in 2025, but sales of bars and coins, fuelled by growing safe haven demand, overtook jewellery purchases for the first time, the China Gold Association said.

China’s gold consumption in 2025 fell 3.57% to 950.096 metric tons, the state-backed association said, for the second annual drop after a fall of 9.58% in 2024, to 985.31 tons.

“As consumers increasingly view gold as an investment, China’s purchases of bars and coins in 2025 overtook jewellery for the first time, marking a structural change,” the gold association said in a statement.

Purchases of gold jewellery fell sharply by 31.61% to stand at 363.836 tons in 2025, accounting for just 38.29% of total consumption, down from more than half previously, it added.

By contrast, purchases of gold bars and coins jumped for a second year, to stand up 35.14% at 504.238 tons, making up more than half of total gold consumption.

The decline in gold jewellery consumption outweighed the gains in buying of bars and coins by 37 tons.

Gold has surged close to 65% this year, its best since 1979, with the Shanghai Futures Exchange contract also rising nearly 60% in 2025.

Higher prices have curbed appetite for jewellery, but lifted demand for the bars and coins investors favour.

Gold prices have shown extreme volatility since the end of January, with the spot price plunging nearly 10% on January 30, for its steepest fall since 1983, while making on Tuesday its biggest daily gain of 5.86% since 2008.

Gold output using domestic raw material climbed 1.09% year on the year to 381.339 tons, the association said.

(By Liz Lee and Dylan Duan; Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Clarence Fernandez)