The Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum (OMFIF) recently released a research report titled “The Seven Ages of Gold”, which looked at central bank activity in the gold market, over the last two centuries. It noted that net purchasing/selling patterns fell into seven distinct periods, each lasting an average of 30yrs, an interesting factoid considering central banks turned net buyers in the aftermath of the GFC. The short-term price impact of this negligible at best, but in an a market that can only deliver circa 3,000 tonnes of newly mined gold each year, a new, and prolonged era of central bank gold buying activity can’t help but support prices in the medium term. And whilst markets focus on the US election, and a potential rate hike in December, the re-emergence of sticky inflation may be the bigger story, especially after a 35 year period which has not seen one decade of negative real returns since, irrespective of which developed market sovereign one entrusted their money too (VIEW LINK)