Last Year's Top Investment Method Was Gold with a 12% Return... Surpassing Stocks and Real Estate

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[Asia Economy Reporter Ji-hwan Park] The most profitable investment method last year was gold, surpassing returns from stocks and real estate.

According to Daishin Securities on the 2nd, the domestic wholesale price of gold, based on the Korea Gold Exchange, rose 11.61% from 267,000 KRW per 1 don (3.75g) on December 31, 2020, to 298,000 KRW on December 30 last year. This increase is attributed to heightened preference for gold as a safe asset amid expanded stock market volatility due to the spread of COVID-19 and inflation concerns last year. Seung-bin Cho, head of asset allocation at Daishin Securities, said, "Although international gold prices slightly declined, domestic gold prices rose due to the weakening of the Korean won."

Following gold, domestic stock funds showed high returns. Domestic stock funds with net assets over 1 billion KRW that employ an active management strategy with a stock allocation ratio of 70-100% recorded an average return of 10.19% last year, ranking second after gold.

After gold and funds, real estate and the US dollar yielded the next highest returns. The comprehensive housing sales price index, published monthly by the Korea Real Estate Board by indexing nationwide housing sales prices, rose 9.56% from 95.20 in December 2020 to 104.30 in November 2021. The US dollar increased 9.44%, from 1,086.3 KRW on December 30, 2020, to 1,188.8 KRW on December 30, 2021.

On the other hand, bond returns, representative of safe assets, were negative and even lower than deposits (1.30% for a one-year fixed deposit at Hana Bank). The Korea Credit Rating comprehensive bond index, which indexes investment return changes in the bond market, fell 1.37% from 262.43 to 258.34.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.