Gold Price in Europe Today

Europe is where the modern gold market was built. London has been the centre of the wholesale trade for centuries: the LBMA Gold Price — the benchmark that settles contracts for banks, miners and central banks worldwide — is set there twice each business day (10:30 AM and 3:00 PM), and the Bank of England vaults beneath Threadneedle Street hold one of the largest official gold stocks on earth. Switzerland plays the complementary role: the country is home to several of the world’s largest gold refineries, and a large share of the gold mined anywhere in the world passes through Swiss refineries on its way to market.

European buying habits split along a clear line. In Germany, Austria and Switzerland, gold is primarily an investment: small bars and coins bought from banks and dealers, held as a hedge against currency and crisis — a habit with deep roots in the region’s 20th-century experience of inflation. Germany is consistently one of the world’s largest bar-and-coin markets. In the Mediterranean — Italy, Greece, Spain, Portugal — gold is more often jewellery, bought for weddings and family occasions, and the 18K standard dominates shop windows. The United Kingdom sits between the two worlds: the Sovereign remains one of the most traded gold coins on the planet, and London dealers serve both investors and the city’s large South Asian jewellery trade.

Tax, reserves and the euro effect

One fact shapes European gold buying more than any other: investment-grade gold bars and coins are exempt from VAT across the European Union, while jewellery is not. That makes a one-ounce bar in Berlin or Paris a clean, tax-free way to own gold, and it is a major reason the bar market is so large. (The UK kept the same exemption after Brexit.) Central banks are the other European constant: Portugal holds 382.7 tonnes of gold reserves and Austria 280 tonnes, while Czechia has been one of Europe’s most active recent buyers, adding 18.9 tonnes in 2024 to reach 80.8 tonnes. For eurozone buyers, one more thing matters: your gold price moves with the euro-dollar rate as much as with gold itself — a falling euro lifts the euro price even on a flat day for the dollar spot.

The table above shows wholesale 24K prices converted from the international spot. For the local detail — units, premiums and where to buy — see the individual country pages, starting with the UK, Germany, Switzerland, France and Italy.