Philippe Gijsels, chief strategy officer at BNP Paribas Fortis
Silver prices will soar, buoyed by strong industrial demand and growing investor interest in the metal as an inflation hedge, according to an economist, Sunday.
Philippe Gijsels, chief strategy officer at BNP Paribas Fortis, said in his new book, “The New World Economy in 5 Trends,” that a potential rise in the price of silver and the largest bull market in commodities the world has ever seen will materialize in 2026.
“When undervaluation, deficits as far as the eye can see and a new industrial revolution meet, momentum market magic happens,” he said. “That is in a nutshell the story of silver in 2025.”
At the beginning of the year, there was little interest in the metal. It had seen little upward movement for many years and lagged behind gold for longer than people care to remember.
“We already argued some time ago that this sleeping beauty of commodity land, which has been in deficit for quite a number of years, would finally wake up and challenge the double top of $50 per ounce that had been in place for multiple decades. The rest is already basically history, for this is exactly what happened over the course of 2025. It is clear that we are now in a secular bull market which could well lead us in the triple digits over the course of 2026,” Gijsels said.
Silver will continue to push higher, he said.
“First, momentum is still clearly there, even though the ride will be more volatile and we may see some violent drawdowns of profit taking along the way. Second, demand from the industrial side will remain strong and will keep the metal in deficit for quite some years to come. Third, people have rightfully understood that in an inflationary world, one needs to own real assets.”
silver bars /gettyimagesbank
“Silver fits the bill perfectly,” he said, adding that the metal, which is up more than 80 percent this year in dollar terms, is clearly in a long-standing bull market.
The strong market momentum will continue to push prices higher, in his view.
“The mechanism behind this is that higher prices and the prospect of higher prices draws in more buyers. On top of this, the technical picture for silver looks strong. We are looking at a clear uptrend with the price clearly above its moving average,” the economist said.
Secondly, silver is not just a precious metal but also an industrial metal.
“This means that in the coming years we will see strong demand for silver coming from new sources of demand like solar panels and medical implementations. This will put the metal even in a larger deficit condition, meaning more demand than there is on offer, leading to even higher prices,” he said.
The same goes for commodity markets as a whole.
“This is only the very first inning of what will be the largest commodity bull market in history. Years of neglect and underinvestment, together with massive demand from the electrical revolution and new applications, have created the perfect storm for the commodity space,” the economist said.
“Silver has been a store of value for the entirety of history. Typically, investors first flock to gold. Silver often follows, as is the case today,” he said.