US$730 million by November, triple all of last year Imports in the last two months account for half of this year’s total Rising investments in gold ETFs cited as a key driver
Gold bars are displayed at Korea Gold Exchange in Jongno-gu, Seoul. 2025.10.13 News1
This year, Korea’s gold imports were found to have exceeded those of 1997, when the country experienced the International Monetary Fund (IMF) foreign exchange crisis. This is analyzed as being due to a stronger global preference for safe assets and an increase in individual investors’ investments in gold exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which has led financial institutions to expand their gold purchases. The so-called “kimchi premium” in gold prices, where domestic gold prices are higher than overseas prices, also appears to have played a role.
According to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy on the 10th, the accumulated value of gold imports from January to November this year stood at USD 7.33 billion (about KRW 10.78 trillion), surging to roughly three times last year’s total gold import value of USD 2.54 billion. This figure surpasses the 1997 import value of USD 6.51 billion, recorded when the foreign exchange crisis erupted.
Gold imports have been particularly concentrated in the last two months, accounting for 49% of this year’s cumulative import value. Gold import values in October (USD 2.1 billion) and November (USD 1.46 billion) increased by 803% and 468%, respectively, from a year earlier.
The ministry analyzes that the increase in gold ETF investment has driven the rise in gold imports. When individual investors’ subscription amounts to gold ETFs increase, ETF managers use more than 99% of the subscription proceeds to purchase physical gold. This is intended to maintain a certain level of alignment between the rate of change in spot gold prices and the rate of change in the total assets of the ETF.
In fact, the total assets of major gold ETF products have expanded significantly this year. The ACE KRX Gold Spot ETF of Korea Investment Management stood at KRW 620 billion as of December last year but exceeded KRW 3 trillion in November this year, while the TIGER KRX Gold Spot ETF of Mirae Asset Global Investments increased from KRW 50 billion in June this year to KRW 900 billion in just five months.
A government official stated, “It is estimated that there was also import demand for arbitrage trading, as gold trading prices in Korea have been higher than those overseas.”
Sejong=Kim Soo-hyun
AI-translated with ChatGPT. Provided as is; original Korean text prevails.
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