Opinion is divided among analysts as to whether the Bank of England is likely to push ahead in its next monetary policy meeting with more monetary stimulus - likely to come in the form of further purchases of government debt with newly created money, or Quantitative Easing.
There was also clearly a certain amount of safe-haven buying by those concerned with monetary policy in the United States and loosening of monetary policy by the European Central Bank, encouraging purchases of physical silver in bar or coin form.
For large-ticket purchases like autos, we will need to see how sales in the coming months play out to form any hard and fast conclusions about the year as a whole.