Physical gold demand globally rose to 1 895 t in the first half of 2017, up 17% from the same period last year, GFMS analysts at Thomson Reuters said. But the market saw a surplus of 138 t in the first six months compared with a balanced market in the same period last year, despite supplies shrinking more than five percent to 2,160 t. That was mainly due to physically-backed exchange traded funds, where demand fell to 145 t from 569 t.
