Indian consumer’s love for gold endures despite soaring prices
Thu May 09 2024
Gold prices, which soared to all-time high levels of over $2400 per ounce in international markets in April this year and are currently hovering at around $2,300 levels, have failed to dull its demand thanks to a healthy appetite for the precious metal among investors.
The gold lust of the Indian consumer has endured with overall
demand rising 8% to 136.6 tonnes in the first quarter of 2024 as compared to
126.3 tonnes in the corresponding quarter of 2023, as per World Gold Council
data.
While total jewellery demand in India went up a modest 4% to 95.5 tonnes in Q1 of 2024 from 91.9 tonnes in Q12023, its total investment demand in the country jumped 19% to 41.1 tonnes in Q12024 from 34.3 tonnes in
Q12023 and even at the current levels the Indian market is still seeing demand for the yellow metal, a top WGC official told TOI.
“The Indian market is quite large and you can still see demand in this environment. It may not be as strong as we saw earlier in the year, which is in response to price volatility, but it has the support that comes from
economic growth,” WGC global head of research Juan Carlos Artigas said.
“Indian consumers, in particular jewellery buyers, are basing their purchases
on two things, the price of gold and their disposable incomes and on that front
India has been doing relatively well,” he said.
He pointed out that the other aspect to be taken into consideration is that the
Indian demand for gold is not just purely for adornment because even jewellery
purchases are seen as a means to preserve wealth in the long run.
On the global gold market, he said there is support not just from central banks
but also because western investors have not yet fully come back into the
market.
“So its not a completely saturated market. Some of the pull-back that we saw
towards the end of April and now May has been helpful for the market to settle
down. Once the trend is clear in the minds of consumers and
they adjust to higher pricing we expect to see more interest,” he added.
Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/