Athletes who win gold at this summer’s Olympics will have an incentive to skip the lap of honour and run straight to the bank. Gold’s price has moved back above $900 an ounce this year, from less than $300 ten years ago. The once forgotten metal is back in demand – from savers and investors worried about inflation, and a growing number of industrial users who target its material properties as much as its symbolic asset value. Because mining activity was run down during the long price slump, the upturn in demand has quickly run up against a limited supply.

In China, India and the Middle East, as Max Flint discovered on his trip to Dubai for The Money Programme, gold’s attraction as a safe store of wealth has never really gone away. Given the scare stories³ circulating about the state of some banks, particularly in China, it’s unsurprising that many households still prefer to keep their savings in a jewellery box than a bank vault. Some analysts lucratively anticipated the emerging world’s gilt-edged appetite ⁴ a decade ago.

Elsewhere in the world, gold’s decorative role now competes with some fast-growing industrial uses – as a component in electronic circuits, catalyst for speciality chemical production and air filtration, corrosion protector, and upmarket dental substitute. Industry absorbs little more than 300 tonnes from an annual world consumption of over 4,000 tonnes, but it means those stocking up at the souks and bazaars have some powerful corporate buyers to haggle against.

Even after this year’s rise, gold price is less than half its last (1980) peak price in real terms. The run-up hasn’t been as smooth as that for oil, or even platinum, and there are plenty of reasons why it might be short-lived. There’s a large global stock – held by central banks, individuals who hoarded it before the long price slump, and speculators who bought during the recent recovery – which will be offloaded whenever the price goes too high. Many of those industrial users can turn to substitute metals when gold gets too expensive.