Despite some talk that India may have re-overtaken China as the World’s largest gold consumer, gold withdrawals out of the Shanghai Gold Exchange (SGE) continue to contradict this enormously. The Chinese themselves have stated that SGE withdrawals – all physical gold which, under SGE rules, cannot be returned to the Exchange for resale – are totally representative of Chinese gold demand. So the SGE figures, which are published weekly, in our view remain as the most readily available measure of true Chinese gold demand.