The global shift in the gold market continued unabated in January, with Swiss trade data showing a massive inflow of the precious metal into Eastern countries.

In its latest trade report, Switzerland said 207 tons of gold were exported from Europe's largest refining center to China, India and Hong Kong. Switzerland's gold exports reportedly hit an eight-year high.

"Shipments from India rose 73% to 14 tons, China more than doubled to 77.8 tons, and Hong Kong nearly sevenfold to 44.6 tons," commodity analysts at MKS PAMP Group said in a report Tuesday.

Commodity analysts noted that Chinese imports were driven by unprecedented demand for jewelry ahead of the "Year of the Dragon" Lunar New Year celebrations. At the same time, analysts also said that more and more Chinese consumers and investors are turning to gold to protect their wealth and hedge against the risks of a weak slowdown in the economy and turmoil in financial markets.

The Swiss trade data is further evidence of China's huge demand for gold. Earlier this month, the Shanghai Gold Exchange reported that 271 tons of gold were withdrawn from the market in January, the busiest start to the year on record and the second highest in the exchange's history.

In a report released last month, BMO Capital Markets commodities analysts said that despite the Federal Reserve's desire to maintain its restrictive monetary policy for the foreseeable future, demand from China is an undervalued asset and has helped gold prices consolidate above $2,000.

"With gold's correlation to real interest rates broken, we are looking at a new era for gold. In our view, this appears to be determined by one macro factor (price-insensitive central banks) and one micro factor (Chinese household asset allocation)," the analysts said in the report.

It's not just gold that's benefiting from strong demand in the East. Commodity analysts at TD Securities noted that Chinese and Indian consumers are buying silver as fast as they can.

Shanghai traders have bought 450 tons of silver since the Lunar New Year, TDS said.

The analysts said, "This adds to the huge 650 tons imported from India in January and highlights that heavy buying activity in the East has now offset short macro trader positions associated with a recent spate of topical data."

TD Bank also said that growing bearish speculative positions in the current environment make the silver market ripe for a potential short squeeze.