Gold sales in the Middle East jumped last year as strong regional economies stoked demand for the precious metal, the World Gold Council (WGC) has said.

The precious metal rose more than 30 per cent last year amid safe-haven buying due to credit market turmoil and worries about the health of the US economy, which sent the dollar to record lows, as well as record high oil prices.

Spot gold hit a record high of $936.50 an ounce at the beginning of this month.

"Comparing the Middle East performance to the rest of the region... the high and volatile gold prices did not affect the gold market to the extreme as per the other regions," WGC managing director for Middle East, Turkey and Pakistan Moaz Barakat said.

Earlier this year the Middle East's largest gold consumer virtually stopped exporting scrap gold as jewellers take advantage of record-high prices.

Demand in the UAE also rose. Gold demand for last year rose 8 per cent to 99.8 tonnes, but it fell 8.1 per cent to 19.3 tonnes in the fourth quarter.

Value of gold sales in the seven-member federation that includes Dubai rose 23.8 per cent to $2.6 billion last year.

Fourth-quarter sales value reached $516 million, almost 6 per cent increase from the same period a year earlier.

Last year's demand in Egypt, the most populous Arab country, was up 12.2 per cent at 67.3 tonnes, while sales value rose 28.6 per cent to $1.8 billion, boosted by growing tourism and a stronger economy, the WGC said.

The country's fourth-quarter demand was up 8.8 per cent at 17.4 tonnes valued at $465 million, as the economy expanded and more regional players jumped into the jewellery market.

Egypt, which once considered gold the skin of the gods, is revisiting ancient deposits of the metal. It produced a sample gold bullion bar in April but has not produced gold commercially in 50 years.-TradeArabia News Service