Gold trade globe
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Flows on the globe for the selected product, given the layers, by value
Key points
World gold trade in 2024 amounted to about $588 bn. The largest exporters are Switzerland ($106 bn), the UAE ($58 bn), Canada ($52 bn), Hong Kong ($36 bn), Australia ($30 bn) and South Africa ($29 bn). The largest buyers are Switzerland ($112 bn), the United Kingdom ($83 bn), Hong Kong and China ($63 bn each) and India ($58 bn). Gold crosses borders many times: it is mined in some countries, refined in others, and stored and sold in yet others.
This is why the market rests on a few hubs. Trade involving Switzerland accounts for 37% of world turnover: it receives 93% of Côte d’Ivoire’s exports, 76% of Burkina Faso’s, 71% of Ghana’s and 64% of Uzbekistan’s, and from here bars go to China ($25 bn) and India ($19 bn). London receives 66% of Canada’s exports and 61% of Kazakhstan’s. Dubai receives 71% of the exports of Armenia, which itself imports gold from Russia ($5.9 bn), and 61% of Egypt’s exports. Hong Kong links the mainland Chinese market with the world: 79% of China’s gold exports go there.
Importance of hubs
Click “Close hub” in the list below or select a hub on the globe. The model shows how much trade passes through it and which countries depend on it most: buyers are highlighted in red, suppliers in orange. The more saturated the color, the larger the share of the country’s trade that involves the hub.
Trading hubs
Trade involving each hub: its imports and exports. The “Close hub” button shows whose trade depends on it.
Click a flow, country, strait or hub on the globe
About the data
Data. Source: BACI (CEPII), a reconciled database of bilateral trade based on UN Comtrade, 2024 (accessed via OEC). Covers HS heading 7108: gold, unwrought, semi-manufactured or in powder form (bars, grains, doré). Jewelry, coins and gold scrap are not included. Estimates cover all flows from $20 m — 99.5% of world trade.
What is shown. The globe shows the 80 largest flows, drawn as straight lines without sea routes: according to Eurostat, less than 3% of the value of gold is carried by sea, the rest by air. The hubs are seven centers through which most of the trade passes: Switzerland, London, Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore, Istanbul and New York. Data are by country, so a hub equals its country’s entire gold trade.
Importance of hubs. For each country, the model calculates the share of gold exports or imports accounted for by trade with the selected hub. Redistribution of shipments between hubs after a closure is not modeled. Country lists include countries with trade of at least 0.3% of the world total.
Limitations. Customs statistics on gold are incomplete: some shipments, especially artisanal gold from Africa, bypass official records. Re-exports through hubs are counted several times, so world turnover exceeds the volume of metal actually moved. Central bank operations are not always reflected in the statistics.
WhiteIndex. Gold Trade Globe (October 2026). Data: BACI (CEPII) based on UN Comtrade, 2024; Eurostat.
All sources
BACI (CEPII) based on UN Comtrade, 2024
This text was translated automatically from Russian. Figures, years, names and sources are as in the original.
Gold exports in 2024: where it comes from, which hubs it passes through and who depends on them