UK gold jewellery sales break record with 'feelgood factor'

Marie Antoinette said let them eat cake. But the world's gold industry wants to go one better and is encouraging people to dine out on gold.

Marie Antoinette said let them eat cake. But the world's gold industry wants to go one better and is encouraging people to dine out on gold.

According to figures published yesterday, UK gold jewellery sales so far this year reached their highest levels since records began, fuelled by the "feelgood factor".

Britons bought 29.2 tonnes in the six months to June, the highest first-half result since quarterly records began in 1990.

The World Gold Council is anxious not to let the momentum to slip and wants to exploit the decision to include the precious metal in the Queen Mother's birthday cake.

Pure gold is edible and was used for the icing for the Queen Mum's 500lb cake. Edible gold is already a craze in Japan, where it is used on sushi, ice cream and coffee.

Now the WGC - which earlier this year urged its members to exploit the fashion for body-piercing - is jumping on the bandwagon.

Tom Butler, a senior consultant in its gold market analysis unit, said all centenarians should be given a gilded cake rather than a birthday telegram.

"Now, if only we could persuade everyone who celebrates their 100th birthday to insist in a cake with real gold in the icing," he told a WGC lunch. "That could do something for the gold consumption statistics."

Sadly, the UK gold industry would not benefit from the initiative. Britain does not make edible gold - the ingredient for the Queen Mother's cake had to be imported from France.

The gold sales figures showed British consumption was 12 per cent up on the same period a year ago.

The UK was the only major European market other than Germany to record a rise. It was the seventh-largest rise across the world, behind only Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia, Qatar, Mexico and Turkey.

George Milling Stanley, manager of gold market analysis at the WGC, said: "There is a great feeling of consumer confidence in the UK and that has certainly helped gold consumption."

He said the "feelgood factor" had encouraged consumers to buy more - and more highly valued - gold. "People are moving into a more optimistic period and are looking to bring more colour to their dress sense."