Sales of gold are surging across the world, as people embrace one of history’s oldest investments. 

The demand for gold has been fueled by inflation concerns, economic uncertainties and record-high central bank gold purchases.

Founder of Tara Gold and Silver Mark O'Byrne said Ireland is also following the global trend.

“The Irish Central Bank, they doubled their gold reserves in 2022 from six metric tons to 12 metric tons,” he said. 

“Paschal Donohoe, the Minister for Finance, said they did that [as part of a] long-term diversification investment strategy in order to create resiliency on the Irish balance sheet.”

Michael McGrath and Paschal Donohoe, © PA Wire/PA Images

With so much interest in the precious metal, the price has increased significantly in recent years. 

According to BullionByPost.ie, one kilogram of gold now costs €90,000. 

Whereas in February 2018, it was worth just over a third of that - around €34,00.

“Gold is money, basically,” Mr O’Byrne said. 

“We have foreign exchange reserves - which are in dollars primarily - and there’s lots of concerns about the dollar as the reserve currency of the world. 

“Therefore the central banks are diversifying out of the dollar primarily into physical gold.” 

Main image: Gold ingots. Picture by: Alamy.com