Turkey Imports Most Silver Since 1999

Bloomberg reported that in December, Turkey imported 41.6 metric tons (MT) of silver, the largest amount since at least 1999. For the whole of 2013, the country brought in 227.8 MT of the metal, a 60-percent increase from 2012 and much higher than the 42.1 MT it imported in 2011.

As quoted in the market news:

Silver plunged 36 percent in London last year and gold slid 28 percent, both the most since 1981, as some investors lost faith in the metals as a store of value. The U.S. Federal Reserve is slowing stimulus amid an improving economy and global equities reached the highest since 2007 this week. While investors sold bullion from gold-backed exchange-traded products, lower prices boosted jewelry, bar and coin demand from the U.S. to China.

‘Some people took the opportunity of lower prices and bought remarkable amounts of gold and silver,’ Daniel Briesemann, an analyst at Commerzbank AG in Frankfurt, said today by phone. ‘Generally, prices are very attractive. Demand is very robust in Turkey and the Arab world as well.’

Click here to read the full Bloomberg report.