Charts of the week: 6 December 2013

The gold/silver ratio is on the rise

The gold price has continued to falter, falling to a five-month low of $1,223/oz as favourable manufacturing data from the US prompted speculation that the US Federal Reserve would begin to scale back its bond buying programme earlier than expected. It’s been reported that holdings in the SPDR Gold trust — the world’s biggest gold-backed ETF, have been in decline, with the overall stock of the metal effectively down by 37 per cent since January. The gold/silver ratio, which usually displays an inverse relationship to the gold price, has reached its highest level since August 2010, reflecting the fact that sentiment towards physical gold amongst private investors edged back through November.

PC sales slip

Annual sales of personal computers are forecast to keep falling in 2014, but not as dramatically as this year’s 10.1 per cent slide in sales of PCs. The biggest factor is the switch towards portable computing on tablet computers and smartphones which are increasingly displacing PCs, even in emerging markets where PC sales had been holding up well until recently. Total sales are forecast to fall to around 300m next year, back in line with sales in 2008.

Go-go growth

The chancellor George Osborne was able to preside over the biggest growth forecast upgrades this millennium when he released his Autumn Statement this week. Figures from the Office for Budget Responsibility showed a cumulative upgrade of 1.4 per cent for this year and next with growth pushing ahead to 2.6 per cent per annum by 2016.

Pensions pain

Workers in their 20’s now face working until they are 70 in new pensions rules announced in this week’s Autumn Statement. The chancellor George Osborne said that linking state pension ages to ever increasingly life expectancy would allow the government to save up to £500bn in the future by pushing the retirement age back. But pensions groups decried the fact that extrapolating out the current thinking would mean a child born today is unlikely to qualify for a pension until they are 77, according to PwC.

Source: PwC