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 ex