The UK surpassed China to become the largest source of investment in gold exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in 2026. This growing interest in precious metals is occurring amid concerns regarding inflation, government financing, and bond market instability.
According to data for September 2026, the net volume of investments in gold funds listed in the UK amounted to $9.5 billion from January to September. This figure slightly exceeded the $9.46 billion registered in Chinese-listed funds, indicating a greater inflow of capital into British gold ETFs compared to Chinese ones.
This shift followed a strong performance by listed funds in the UK during the third quarter. In this quarter, purchases totaling approximately $7.5 billion were made, equivalent to 54 tons of gold. This significant volume of purchases contributed to Europe making a record purchase of $13.64 billion during this quarter.
Thanks to high demand, investments in UK-listed funds grew continuously for 12 out of 13 weeks leading up to September 25, marking the most stable buying period since 2022. This suggests that investor interest was not limited to any single market event.
The World Council noted that establishing definitive reasons for the unusually strong inflow of investment into the UK is difficult. However, the increase in the term premium of government bonds is an indication that bond growth could cause problems similar to a financial crisis. At the same time, people are increasing investments in shorter-term bonds, and investors are increasing inflows into safe assets due to instability.
The Council reported that investments in UK gold ETFs grew above the forecasts of the historical model, coinciding with changes in the country's bond term premiums starting in July. At the beginning of the year, this correlation was weak, but it strengthened in the third quarter.
The model, based on flows of UK and Western gold ETFs, predicted an inflow of about 18 tons of gold into the UK per quarter; however, 54 tons of gold were actually recorded. This additional mass of 36 tons remained largely unexplained even after accounting for additional economic and financial indicators of the UK.