Rumours of the demise of gold have been exaggerated so often in recent years that seizing on its recent slump smacks of recklessness. Taken at face value, its price drop is hardly catastrophic. Gold is down a little more than 16 per cent from the all-time nominal high it reached in September; it remains up nearly 12 per cent year-to-date. That may be less than it delivered in 2008 and 2009, when it rose 25 per cent and 29 per cent, respectively. But it beats nearly any broad equity or fixed income index over one or three years, with the notable exception of US Treasuries.
近年有关黄金失宠的传言往往被证明言过其实，以至于抓住近期金价下跌大做文章有鲁莽之嫌。从表面上看，金价跌幅并不是灾难性的。相比9月份达到的名义金价最高点，跌幅仅略高于16%，而今年以来金价涨幅仍有近12%。这比起2008年和2009年的涨幅也许小了一些（那两年金价分别上涨25%和29%），但从1年或3年期表现看，黄金优于几乎所有股指或固定收益指数，只有美国国债除外（这点值得注意）。