Silver sinks to about £37 an ounce, an 11-month low, as gold-silver ratio jumps towards 79

Silver had a rough Friday, falling roughly 6 per cent to about $49 a troy ounce, according to Kitco. That is around £37 an ounce, or £1.19 a gram, on our approximate conversion before any dealer costs. Yahoo Finance describes it as an 11-month low, and USAGOLD notes silver slipped below $50 for the first time in months.

Gold fell too, down about 3.5 per cent to near $3,880, roughly £2,937 an ounce. Because silver dropped faster, the gold-silver ratio, the number of silver ounces needed to buy one ounce of gold, widened to about 79 on those prices, from around 75 earlier in the week.

Kitco ties the selloff to hotter US inflation data, with September PCE running at 3.6 per cent a year, alongside strong growth figures and higher oil prices after a reported attack in the Strait of Hormuz. Markets now price about an 83 per cent chance of a Federal Reserve rate rise in December, which tends to weigh on metals that pay no interest. A broad share market selloff also pushed some investors to sell assets to raise cash.

For UK buyers, a lower spot price does not mean a lower final bill. Most silver bullion carries 20 per cent VAT, while investment gold does not. Compare the all-in cost: spot plus premium, VAT and delivery. This is market information, not financial advice.