Gold as a global store of value

Charting gold’s value versus developed and emerging currencies

Gold price versus developed market currencies

• Gold has outperformed major currencies significantly since 2008.
• The U.S. dollar (USD) and Swiss franc (CHF) have retained value relatively well against the world’s oldest form of money. (Although gold has appreciated +200% and +120% respectively)
• The U.K. pound (GBP), Euro (EUR), and Australian dollar (AUD) have depreciated at the highest rates versus gold among developed markets.

Gold is the world’s oldest form of money, and its value has grown significantly in the decades after its direct link to “paper money” broke. Since the early 1970s, it has appreciated nearly 7,000% against the dollar. Gold as a store of value is evident for both relatively stable developed market currencies — and especially versus emerging markets.

Gold price versus emerging market currencies

Gold has skyrocketed against emerging market currencies, particularly the Russian ruble and Brazilian real since 2012. For hyper-inflationary economies such as Turkey and Argentina, gold’s performance is truly off-the-charts (and is filtered from the above chart for sheer readability).