Silver has risen in price by more than 12% this year, and there should be further to go. Industrial applications make up around 55% of overall silver demand; they range from medicine (the metal has anti-bacterial properties) to solar panels. Thanks to the solar industry in particular, overall industrial demand growth expanded by 3% last year and is set for a similar expansion in 2017, reckons Bloomberg.com.
Meanwhile, jewellery accounts for a fifth of demand, while the rest stems from physical silver and silver-backed exchange-traded funds. Silver is a monetary metal and a traditional store of value like gold, so it tends to benefit from the same trends as the yellow metal. One that bodes well is the return of inflation.
MoneyWeek
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