Commodities at a Glance: Special Issue on Gold

United Nations Conference on Trade and Development

关键词: Commodities;    Minerals;    Commodity Dependent Economies;   

RP-ID  :  UNCTAD/SUC/2015/3

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: United Nations Conference on Trade and Development

【 摘 要 】

The Commodities at a Glance series aims to collect, present and disseminate accurate and relevant statistical information linked to international primary commodity markets in a clear, concise and reader-friendly format.

The Characteristics of Gold

Gold is a precious yellow, bright and highly valued metal. It has been known, appreciated and used for thousands of years. The first documented goldmine in the world, estimated to be 4,000 years old, was discovered in Tbilisi (Georgia) in 2005.

Gold is among the rarest elements in the earth’s crust, where it is mainly present in its native form; it can also be associated with other elements, such as silver - resulting mainly in the elements, electrum and tellurium - but also with copper or iron, among others.

Gold is used as input in many industries, such as jewellery, dentistry or electronics, and for electrical applications. However, its softness and high prices ($1,428 per troy ounce, on average, between 2010 and 2014) tend to limit its use to sectors where no efficient substitutes have been developed, or encourage its mixture with other metals (e.g. silver, copper, platinum group metals).

Gold is also used for monetary purposes (e.g. coinage), and as a safe-haven asset and investment vehicle during periods of economic uncertainty.

The Role of Gold in Economies

Gold plays a vital, multidimensional role in both local and international economies. In gold-producing developing countries, it may account for a large share of their merchandise export revenues. For instance, it accounted for more than 40 per cent of the export revenues of Mali, Burkina Faso and Guyana between 2009 and 2013, and for 56 per cent in Suriname in 2013.

Gold is also a source of substantial government revenues through taxes and royalties on mining and processing activities. Moreover, while activities associated with gold are generally capital-intensive, they nevertheless represent an important source of local employment, with about 50,000 people directly or indirectly employed by the gold sector in Australia and around 300,000 people in South Africa, for instance. In all, according to World Gold Council estimates, about 100 million people rely on gold mining activities for their livelihoods.

The Gold Standard system (1870-1914)

The gold standard system used gold as the world’s common unit of account. This meant that the value of each participating currency was determined according to a specific weight in gold. Each currency could be freely converted into gold, and the nominal exchange rate between two currencies was fixed according to their respective gold content. Within this system, the maximum amount of money that could be issued by central banks was determined by the level of its domestic gold reserves. The gold standard had already been in place in the United Kingdom since 1821, but the system was extended to cover other countries during the 1870s.

The gold standard system came to an end with the beginning of the First World War. After a period of freefloating exchange rates from the end of the First World War to the beginning of the Great Depression, a few countries joined forces to try to revive a system similar to that of the gold standard. However, the difficult political situation, notably in Europe, fears regarding high inflation risks and the beginning of the Great Depression, followed by the Second World War, led to the definitive collapse of the gold standard system.

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