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Los Angeles CA, May 20 (Tangible Investments) - by James O’Dell - Gold and silver prices turned modestly lower on Monday after an early morning rally, as gold finished flat, easing $0.19 or 0.02 percent to close at $1,292.41 an ounce, while silver dipped $0.01 or 0.87 percent to close at $19.34 an ounce, as the gold/silver ratio inched higher to 66.90.
 
The World Gold Council (WGC) released its latest Gold Demand Trends for the first quarter of 2014, and it shows that consumers are responding positively to the lower gold prices, as demand for gold jewelry grew 3 percent year-on-year to hit 571 tons, its best showing since 2005. While demand among nations has been wide ranging, geographically, China posted the largest volume increase of 18 tons from the previous year.
 
Investment demand for the first quarter rose to 282 tons and was just 6 tons shy of the year previous, while bar and coin demand was down sharply, but outflows from gold-backed ETFs (paper gold) was practically nil compared to last year's outflows of 177 tons.
 
Overall demand from the technology sector fell to 99 tons, a 4 percent first quarter decline, driven primarily by cost cutting as manufacturers settled for cheaper alternatives. Central bank buying topped 100 tons in the first quarter and marked the 13th straight quarter of net purchases by banks diversifying their holdings. A moderate increase in global mine production was balanced by a decline in recycled gold, and led to a first quarter total supply figure of 1,048 tons of bullion.
 
The WGC said that it welcomes the new accord by European central banks on the latest Central Bank Gold Agreement (CBGA). Less than 25 tons of an agreed limit of 2,000 tons of gold has been sold over the past 5 years by the 21 European central banks that have agreed to the CBGA.  Most of the sales were for the minting of gold coins.

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