LONDON: Switzerland in February sent gold to mainland China for the first time since September and shipments to India and Thailand rose to multi-year highs, suggesting that demand for bullion in Asia is recovering from the coronavirus shock.

Switzerland is the world's biggest gold refining centre and transit hub, while India and China are the two biggest gold consumers and Thailand is a regional trade hub.

Demand from all three Asian countries plunged last year as the coronavirus spread and has been slowest to recover in China.

One reason for the pick-up is a steady decline in gold prices from record highs last August. Most gold in Asia is sold as jewellery and buyers are put off by high prices.

Swiss customs data showed that in February Switzerland exported 56.5 tonnes of gold to India, 11.2 tonnes to Thailand, 2 tonnes to mainland China and 1 tonne to Hong Kong.

That is biggest total to India for any month since April 2019, to Thailand since August 2018 and to Hong Kong since September. It is the first shipment of any gold at all to China since September.