Buried

UNCERTAINTY is supposed to lift the gold price. But neither upheaval in the Middle East, nor the travails of the euro zone, nor startlingly loose monetary policy in the rich world is brightening the spirits of those who swear by bullion. After a big rally during the financial crisis, the price has sagged to about $1,200 an ounce, a third below its peak in 2011. Little seems likely to turn it round. “We’ve seen everything gold bugs could hope for: endless money printing, 0% interest rates (both short-term and long-term adjusted for inflation), rising debt and debt ratios in the public and private sectors…So where’s the damn hyperinflation?” asks Harry Dent, a newsletter publisher, in a recent blog post.

The biggest pressure on the gold price comes from the expectation that interest rates in America will rise later this year. Matthew Turner of Macquarie, a bank, says that low interest rates cut the opportunity cost of owning gold. Higher interest rates, by contrast, raise the cost of holding non-interest-bearing assets. Mr Turner thinks expectations of rising rates are already built into the gold price; if they do not materialise as quickly as expected, there could even be a rally.

That cannot come soon enough for gold producers. Nikolai Zelenski, the boss of Nordgold, which has mines in Africa and the former Soviet Union, says that half of all producers have negative cashflow. Some are heavily indebted, too. If the price does not rise, production could fall on a scale not seen since the two world wars.

Gold bugs are determinedly optimistic. Gold is priced in dollars, so the fact that it stayed stable while America’s currency was rising (making gold more expensive for buyers in foreign currencies) is cause for cheer. Chinese consumers are buying more gold, after a sharp decline sparked partly by an anti-corruption campaign. So are Indians, the world’s biggest consumers of gold, after the government removed restrictions on imports last year. Yet the fact remains: gold is in a rut.

One reason may be that investors have so many more options nowadays. Humble citizens who distrust their own currencies can buy assets ranging from shares to bitcoins. Laurence Fink, the chairman of BlackRock, the world’s biggest asset-management firm, said in March that gold had “lost its lustre”, thanks to the wider availability of property and even contemporary art. “It’s become much more accessible for global families worldwide to store wealth outside their country.”

The main exception to the trend is Russia, where the central bank has been a notable buyer of gold, tripling its holdings since 2005. It bought 30 tonnes in March alone, bringing its hoard to 1,238 tonnes. The Kremlin’s growing stockpile does not so much reflect a belief in gold’s prospects, however, as a distaste for the American dollar. Whatever Vladimir Putin’s other qualities, most investors would hesitate to take him on as a financial adviser.