Gold, silver bars sell out as popular 'safe' asset

A gold bar and silver bar are displayed at the Incheon branch of Korea Gold Exchange, Sunday. Yonhap

By Lee Kyung-min

• Published Oct 15, 2025 3:49 PM KST

Lee Jong-won, an office worker in his 30s, visited a bank branch in Seoul last week to buy gold bars, only to be shocked that they had all sold out.

“I wasn’t looking to get rich fast. I just wanted something safe,” he said.

Lee said he would settle for silver, but they were unavailable as well. “Gold made sense given everything — the economy, still-high borrowing costs and prices of everything going up. I thought silver might be the next best choice. But apparently, I wasn’t the only one thinking that.”

Lee is among many who are rushing to buy gold and silver to protect their assets in an uncertain economic environment.

The collective move has led to demand outpacing the supply, and as a result many commercial lenders are experiencing a shortage of gold and silver bars.

Also surging are gold banking balances at the commercial lenders. Gold banking is a process whereby customers can buy and sell gold using their bank accounts.

According to the banking sector, both gold bars and silver bars are selling out, and some banks are reporting delivery delays of over 10 days due to inventory shortfalls.

Around 450 billion won’s worth of gold bars have been sold this year, nearly three times the 165 billion won from last year.

Gold bar sales surpassed 10 billion won in May last year and remained in the 10-20 billion won range for several months.

However, the figure surged to 88 billion won in February. From March, monthly sales remained in the 20-30 billion won range, before spiking to over 111 billion in September.

The Korea Minting and Security Printing Corp. suspended gold bar production until January next year.

Korea Gold Exchange also said it would halt supply of 1 kilogram silver bars starting Oct. 20.

Meanwhile, the combined gold banking balances at KB Kookmin, Shinhan and Woori came to 1.5 trillion won as of October. The balances increased by 730.8 billion this year.

Global gold prices hit a record high of $4,100 per ounce Oct. 14 (local time). Silver prices topped $52.5 per ounce.