Gold shines brightest in 2025 as investors flock to safety

Stephen Grootes speaks to John Reade, market strategist at the World Gold Council about the latest gold demand trends data after 2025 marked a record-breaking year for the precious metal.

Listen to the interview in the audio player below.

Gold has delivered one of the most extraordinary performances in its modern history, smashing records on both price and demand fronts.

Total global gold demand in 2025 exceeded 5000 tons for the first time ever.

Combined with a relentless surge in prices, which saw the gold price set 53 new all-time highs during the year, the total value of gold demand soared to an unprecedented U.S$555 billion, up 45% year-on-year.

The final quarter of 2025 capped off the record-setting run, with fourth-quarter demand reaching 1303 tons, the highest ever for a Q4 period.

Safe-haven demand remained a consistent theme throughout the year, heightened by geopolitical tensions and coupled with the unpredictability of the U.S dollar, once regarded as a safe-haven currency. 

Speaking to Stephen Grootes on The Money Show, John Reade, market strategist at the World Gold Council says they foresee the gold price to continue climbing to further record highs in 2026.

He does however say that given the volatility of the gold market, it's hard to forecast what will happen to the price.

"There's been some really strong gains in the price, but the volatility that we've seen today we suspect will be the shape of things to come. This is not the gold market of 2023 of 2024. This is a gold market where we've seen lots of investment come into the space particularly over the last six to nine months and that's going to lead to more volatility going forward..."

- John Reade, market strategist - World Gold Council

"To be honest, anyone that makes a forecast in gold at the moment is really guessing. There're too many factors at play and some of them are just too hard to predict. One thing we can say with confidence though, the very strong investment demand that we saw last year, is likely to continue."

- John Reade, market strategist - World Gold Council

"The factors that have driven investors to add gold to their portfolios are likely to continue. Lower interest rates, concerns about Fed independence, belligerence in terms of military adventures from the White House, all of these factors are likely to continue. It would take an outbreak of peace, harmony and collaboration I think to take the wind out of gold's sails properly this year."

- John Reade, market strategist - World Gold Council

Scroll to the top of the article to listen to the full interview.