LBMA Annual Precious Metals Forecast Survey

Following 2024’s record highs, prices in 2025 went above and beyond for gold. Keisuke (Bill) Okui was the most bullish in the 2025 survey with his average forecast of $2,925.00, so takes top spot this year.

Actual prices for the year exceeded the average of all forecasts by a staggering 25% – the actual average price reached $3,431.54 in 2025 while the forecast average for the year was just $2,735.33. The 2025 forecast was itself 14.6% higher than the average price for 2024 ($2,386.20), illustrating just how high the gold price has climbed in the last few years – a trend that Keisuke (Bill) explained in his commentary as “due to continuous buying from private sectors and central banks.” Indeed, the three most important factors he stated would impact the gold price in 2025 were US Dollar interest rates, gold accumulation by central banks, and quantitative tightening.

The range provided by the winner was $2,550.00 to $3,200.00 – while the highest high forecast by any analyst (Chantelle Schieven, Capitalight Research – winner in the gold category last year) was $3,290.00, still almost $150 shy of even the average actual price.

Winning the silver category this year, Nicky Shiels’ forecast of $36.50 – the most bullish of all analysts – was closest to the actual average price for 2025 of $40.03. Silver prices surged dramatically in 2025, delivering one of the strongest annual gains on record, rising from $29.41 on 1 January to a high of $74.84 on 30 December. Throughout the year the silver price saw a percentage change of 144.82%.

Silver significantly outperformed all other precious metals in 2025, as reasoned by Nicky in her commentary supplied at the time of her forecast: “Silver is to outperform all precious metals in 2025 given synchronised central bank rate cuts, a more supportive China and US macroeconomic backdrop, still strong solar demand, and ultimately a lower US dollar trajectory.”

The average price for platinum in 2025 was $1,274.73 – $174.73 higher than the highest average price forecast of $1,100.00 which was given by two analysts. The tie break rules state that: “In the event of a tie-break, where two or more analysts are equally close to the average, our winner will be the one whose high-low forecast range is closest to the actual price range for 2025.”

The actual price range for 2025 was $920.00 - $2,226.00. Julia Du (ICBC Standard Bank) forecast an average price of $1,100.00 for platinum, with a range of $850.00 - $1,300.00. Joni Teves (UBS) gave the same average forecast of $1,100.00 with a range of $880.00 - $1,350.00 – making her the winner as the range she gave was closest to the actual range.

Despite the somewhat lacklustre forecasts given by the analysts for this year, platinum ended 2025 as one of the year’s top-performing commodities. Beginning the year at $921.00, its price rose dramatically, eventually rounding off the year at $2,226.00 – 142% up from January.

The most bullish analyst wins again for palladium, with Joni Teves (UBS) picking up another prize in this year’s forecast survey with her average forecast price of $1,090.00, closest to the actual average price of $1,150.29.

When supplying commentaries for the 2025 forecast survey, analysts were concerned that the palladium price growth for the year would be hampered by concerns of oversupply and weak demand. Notoriously tough to forecast, palladium gave a strong performance in 2025 with significant rallies driven by concerns over Russian supply, slower-than-expected electric vehicle (EV) adoption (boosting hybrid demand), and general precious metal momentum – starting the year at $921.00 and ending at $1,660.00 with a high of $1,837.00 on 23 December.