GENEVA - THE world's wealthiest people have responded to economic worries by buying gold by the bar - and sometimes by the ton - and by moving assets out of the financial system, bankers catering to the very rich said on Monday.

Fears of a double-dip downturn have boosted the appetite for physical bullion as well as for mining company shares and exchange-traded funds, UBS executive Josef Stadler told the Reuters Global Private Banking Summit.

'They don't only buy ETFs or futures; they buy physical gold,' said Mr Stadler, who runs the Swiss bank's services for clients with assets of at least US$50 million (S$65.7 million) to invest.

UBS is recommending top-tier clients hold 7-10 per cent of their assets in precious metals like gold, which is on course for its tenth consecutive yearly gain and traded at around US$1,314.50 an ounce on Monday, near the record level reached last week. 'We had a clear example of a couple buying over a ton of gold ... and carrying it to another place,' Mr Stadler said. At today's prices, that shipment would be worth about US$42 million.

Julius Baer's chief investment officer for Asia is also recommending that wealthy investors park some of their assets in gold as a defensive stance following a string of lacklustre US data and amid concerns about currency weakness. 'I see gold as an insurance,' Van Anantha-Nageswaran said.

Billionaire financier George Soros, echoing comments from investment guru Warren Buffett, last month described gold as the 'ultimate bubble' because it is costly to dig up and has no real value except its market price. -- REUTERS