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Gold’s worst year of the 1990s: a wave of central-bank sales and the Asian financial crisis drove it from about $369 down through $300, a fall of more than 20%.
Monthly path for 1997, anchored to the real open ($ 369.00), the high in January, the low in December, and the close ($ 290.00). The dashed line marks the yearly average; intra-year movement between anchor points is illustrative.
Year-over-year, gold fell -21.41% versus its 1996 close of $ 369.00.
1997 was the year the market concluded that even central banks no longer wanted gold. Australia’s announcement that it had quietly sold 167 tonnes — most of its reserve — landed like a thunderclap in July, and talk of Swiss sales compounded the gloom. Each headline reinforced the same fear: decades of official accumulation had turned into a standing overhang of supply.
The Asian financial crisis, which began that same July, removed the other pillar of the market. East Asia was the world’s fastest-growing source of physical gold demand, and collapsing currencies turned countries like South Korea into outright sellers — households would famously donate and sell gold en masse in early 1998. By December the price had broken below $300 for the first time in eighteen years, closing the year near $290.
Australia’s central bank revealed in July it had sold two-thirds of its gold reserves, shocking the market.
The Asian financial crisis erupted in July with the Thai baht devaluation, crushing regional gold demand.
Gold broke below $300 in late 1997 for the first time since 1979.
Swiss proposals to sell part of the national gold reserve added to the official-sector overhang.
Gold averaged about $331 per ounce in 1997 but fell steadily all year — from roughly $369 in January to about $283 in December, a decline of more than 20%.
A wave of announced and rumored central-bank sales (Australia, Switzerland) collided with the Asian financial crisis, which devastated physical demand in gold’s biggest growth region.
Gold's 1997 high was about $ 369.00 per troy ounce, reached in January.
The average gold price in 1997 was roughly $ 331.00 per troy ounce — it opened near $ 369.00 and closed around $ 290.00.
Gold fell about 21.4% over 1997, between a low of $ 283.00 and a high of $ 369.00.
Historical figures are approximate annual values shown for educational analysis and may differ from other sources. This is not financial advice — see our disclaimer.