The last few years in the world have largely been marked by increased geopolitical tensions, record purchases of gold from central banks and increased investment demand for the yellow metal. At the same time, the rise in silver prices remained a story that developed in parallel, but still in the shadow of the gold rally.
In 2025, silver quotes, however, are clearly outperforming. Gold prices, taking into account the levels of 4,220 per troy ounce, have increased by about 60% since the beginning of the year as of December 1. The exchange value of silver, taking into account the achievement of a new maximum of 59 per troy ounce on December 1, has increased by more than 100% since the beginning of the year.
Silver prices generally show a stronger local upward momentum due to a number of factors. In particular, in October, the Reserve Bank of India announced a change in the rules on assets that can be used as collateral for bank loans. Starting in April 2026, the rules will come into force, according to which in India it becomes possible to use jewelry, coins and other silver products as an asset to secure bank loans.
In mid-November, for the first time, the US authorities included silver in the list of "critically important minerals" that are of increased importance to the economy and national security.
Examples of the use of silver as a collateral asset in India, as well as proposals from the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation to the Central Bank of the Russian Federation for the purchase of silver, show that silver partially retains the role of the precious metal as a means of saving.
In addition, a shortage of silver supply is projected to persist this year and next. Demand for silver has generally exceeded supply for 5 consecutive years, starting in 2021. Moreover, we are talking about a fairly significant deficit: almost at the level of 20% of total demand in 2022-2023 and about 10-15% in 2024-2025.
This deficit was largely formed due to the more active industrial use of precious metals. The use of silver in the industry of the world increased from 491 million troy ounces in 2016 to 680 million troy ounces in 2024. In fact, the entire increase in demand for silver over the same period – from 993 million ounces to 1164 million ounces – was due to an increase in industrial demand.
The expansion of the prospects for the industrial use of silver is potentially beginning to put the precious metal in a position of outstripping growth compared to gold.
Against this background, with further growth in silver prices, a trend reversal may form, which, with small pauses, has been observed since the early 1980s. In the first half of the 1970s, the ratio of the value of gold to the value of silver
