In spite of gold losing much of its sheen in 2013 as global prices plummeted to record-low levels, the yellow metal nevertheless significantly contributes to the global economy.

A study by PricewaterhouseCoopers commissioned by the World Gold Council placed the direct contribution to the global economy of consumer demand for physical gold products in the form of jewellery, small bars and coins to $110 billion in 2012.

The report said global gold supply in 2012 reached 4,477 tonnes, of which about two-thirds were sourced from mining and one-third from recycling of gold.

The gold output of the 15 biggest gold-producing nations, which includes Australia, comprised 75 per cent of global out and directly generated $78.4 billion of gross value added for that year.

That amount is almost the same size as the gross domestic product (GDP) of Ecuador or Azerbaijan, or 30 per cent of Shanghai's GDP.

Part of the value added comes from the employment the gold mining industry provided to 527,900 in 2012. South Africa employs about 145,000 in gold mines, Russia 134,000, China 98,000, Australia 32,300, Indonesia 18,600, Tanzania 17,000 and PNG (16,100)

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In terms of GVA as a percentage of GDP, the highest belongs to Papua New Guinea at 15 per cent, followed by Ghana (8 per cent) and Tanzania (6 per cent.

As a source of export, some countries relied heavily on gold mining. The list include Tanzania where gold made up 36 per cent of its total exports and Ghana and Papua New Guinea, both at 26 per cent.

By production volume, Australia, China, the U.S., Russia, Peru and South Africa accounted for more than half of the gold mined across the world last year.

Including indirect GVA, total GVA linked with the supply of and demand for gold exceeded $210 billion globally. It is equivalent to the GDP or Ireland, the Czech Republic or Beijing.

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