Steve Rand
General Manager / Sr. Precious Metals Advisor
Steve Rand is the General Manager and a Sr. Precious Metals Advisor at Scottsdale Bullion & Coin. He brings over 20 years of experience in the physical precious metals markets.
Yes, silver is a good investment now and will likely continue to be in 2021. All eyes are on gold, up almost 20% since the start of 2020 (as of 7/15/2020), but many experts think silver may prove to be the better buy in the medium- to long-term, with murmurs of silver outperforming gold growing louder after the white metal hit nearly $19.50 an oz on July 15, 2020.[1],[2],[3]
How high could the price of silver go? Remember 2010? When silver prices jumped from $17 to $50 an ounce in just nine months? It could happen again. Within the next 3 years, say analysts. That would make Right Now the time to invest in silver.[4]
See why the next silver bull market could be building in this article.
Silver Price Predictions 2020-2028
Expert predictions for when silver prices could hit $50 an ounce vary from 2023 to 2028, but the consensus is prices will keep moving higher and higher, making now the time to buy silver.[5],[6]
Unlock Silver Investor Trade Secrets in our Investor Report.
Get Your Free ReportSilver Price Predictions for 2020 & 2021
Scotiabank
Silver Price Forecast: $23/oz in 2020
Back in January 2020—before the pandemic shut down precious metals mines—Scotiabank analysts thought “the global supply of silver is ‘fundamentally oversupplied.’”[7] Still, they foresaw investor demand for a currency hedge driving gold and silver buying, estimating silver prices to rise as high as $23 an ounce in 2020.[8]
Economy Forecast Agency (EFA)
Silver Price Forecast: $18.47/oz in 2020 | $19.41/oz in 2021
Using mathematical and statistical methods of prediction based on existing historical data, the independent Economy Forecast Agency predicts the price of silver to close at $18.47 in 2020 and $19.41 in 2021.[9],[10]
InvestingHaven
Silver Price Forecast: $22/oz in 2020 | $28/oz in 2021
Experts at financial forecasting firm, InvestingHaven, expect 2020 to be “mildly bullish” for silver, with prices reaching $22 an ounce. By 2021, they think silver prices will turn “wildly bullish,” breaking out to $28 an ounce. Factors influencing their silver price outlook include a soft dollar, rising inflation, and strong gold prices.[11]
See more forecasts for this year in our “Silver Price Forecast 2020.”
Silver Bull Market 2023-2028
Chancery Asset Management
Silver Price Forecast: $50/oz in 2023
Gold needed a black swan event to launch the next bull market. Everything has come together now…– Thomas Puppendahl, founder of Chancery Asset Management
Predicting the central banks’ out-of-control money printing and governments’ stimulus packages to trigger inflation, Puppendahl announced the ‘most violent’ bull market is here, and it will send gold prices to $5,000 an ounce and silver prices to $50 an ounce in the next three years.[12]
InvestingHaven
Silver Price Forecast: $50/oz in 2028
‘Once bullish, extremely bullish,’ is what characterizes silver.– InvestingHaven analysts
Citing its analysis of the longest silver price chart (50 years), InvestingHaven analysts indicated the bottom pattern forming for silver prices from 2011 to present is a minified version of the pattern representing silver prices from 1979 to 2011. Based on this chart analysis, they predict silver will reach $50 an ounce in 8 years.[13]
Longest Silver Price Chart
Chart image source: investinghaven.com
First Majestic Silver
Silver Price Forecast: $130/oz – $1,000/oz
We’re consuming…over 1 billion ounces of silver annually, and miners are only producing about 800 million ounces a year, and that’s been dropping for three consecutive years.– Keith Neumeyer, CEO of First Majestic Silver
Neumeyer has long held that $130 per ounce is a realistic prediction for future silver prices. In fact, he’s gone so far as to predict future prices near $1,000 per ounce.[14]
Why Is the Price of Silver Going Up?
What’s behind the recent spike in the price of silver and robust silver price predictions? Several factors influence silver prices.
Let’s examine how they’re playing out right now.
Silver Supply
It’s harder to bring mining production back quickly than it is to bring demand back.– Rohan Reddy, research analyst at Global X
Declines in mining have reduced silver supply in the face of rising demand since 2016. Prior to the pandemic, experts predicted silver mining to start increasing in 2020.[15] However, precious metals mining ground to a halt during the shutdown, taking two-thirds of global silver output offline.[16]
Silver Demand
As the global community grapples with the chaos and uncertainty of the pandemic, investors are turning to the safety of gold and silver.
Below are some of the major financial, economic, and political problems driving demand for precious metals.
Stock Market Rollercoaster
Stock market volatility has plagued Wall Street in 2020. COVID-19 dealt the first blow in March, shutting down the economy and putting tens of millions of Americans out of work.
Massive fiscal and Fed stimulus fueled a rebound, but then the Dow plunged 1,800 points on June 11 on fears a second wave of the virus would close the country again.[17] Those fears weren’t unwarranted, as several sunbelt states shut down their economies again due to spikes in cases.
With the presidential election in November, the road ahead for equities continues to look rocky.[18]
2020 YTD Silver & Gold vs. Stocks
So far this year, gold and silver have outperformed the Dow and S&P. Investors often buy gold and silver to hedge against volatility and uncertainty in the equities markets.
2020 YTD Silver & Gold vs. Stocks
| Asset | Year-to-Date Performance (7/3/20) |
|---|---|
| S&P 500 Index | -3.12%[19] |
| NASDAQ | 13.76[20] |
| Dow | -9.50%[21] |
| Gold | 17.61%[22] |
| Silver | 1.87%[23] |
Dollar Weakness
The U.S. economy has been afflicted with some significant macro imbalances for a long time, namely a very low domestic savings rate and a chronic current account deficit… The dollar is going to fall very, very sharply.– Stephen Roach, former Morgan Stanley Asia chairman on CNBC’s “Trading Nation”
How far could the dollar drop? Roach forecasts a 35% plummet against other major currencies.
How soon? Within the next year or two, he predicts, adding that the dollar crash is “virtually inevitable.”
It’s not a risk investors should shrug off, either, warns Roach. Why? Because inflation could soar as we import foreign goods with a weaker dollar. Interest rates are already at zero, limiting the Fed’s ability to lower inflation with cuts—unless it resorts to negative rates.
Remember the stagflation crisis of the late 1970s? It could happen all over again, says Roach.[24]
Gold and silver are an excellent hedge against inflation because, unlike fiat currencies, they’ve maintained their value for centuries. In fact, prices for precious metals tend to rise during times of economic turmoil, as we’ve seen during the current coronavirus recession.
Why Buy Silver Now?
Examining the factors that can influence the price of silver suggests the precious metal may, at this point, be undervalued because of weak industrial demand due to the economic downturn. Industry and technology typically account for more than half of annual demand for silver.[25],[26]
Those who get in now are likely to see a good return on their investment in the coming months and years as the economy recovers, especially given the positive price forecasts for the metal.
In the near-term, diversifying your portfolio with gold and silver can help protect it from stock market volatility and the threats of a weakening dollar, inflation, and, as some experts predict, even stagflation.
Ready to invest in silver but not sure how to get started? This FREE guide to investing in precious metals can help.