Yesterday, the World Gold Council published data on Gold ETFs in October, Commerzbank's commodity analyst Carsten Fritsch notes.

Gold ETF holdings reach five-year high in October

"Their holdings rose by a further 55 tons to reach a five-year high of 3,892 tons. This was the fifth consecutive month and ninth month this year with net inflows, which have totaled just under 674 tons since the beginning of the year. Inflows in October were driven by ETFs in North America and Asia, while ETFs registered in Europe recorded outflows for the first time in five months. These were concentrated in the United Kingdom and Germany."

"The world's largest Gold ETF in the US recorded the strongest inflows. It is also striking that four of the top six ETFs with inflows are from China. Chinese ETFs recorded inflows of 34 tons in October, which was almost equal to the outflows in Europe. This meant that ETF demand shifted from Europe to China in October. Bloomberg's ETF data had already indicated outflows from European ETFs."

"Because Chinese ETFs are not included in this data, net inflows into ETFs tracked by Bloomberg in October were significantly lower than those reported by the WGC, at less than 10 tons. In the WGC's data for the first 10 months, net inflows are dominated by the US. China follows at a considerable distance, with Europe in third place. It is noticeable that Germany ranks well behind, lagging behind India and Japan."