India’s Demand For Gold Shrinks By 12 Percent During First Quarter 2018

In India, the demand for gold has diminished by 12 percent and stands at 115.6 tonnes during the first quarter of 2018 as compared against the same period last year. The reason being high local gold price reports from PTI.

The World Gold Council (WGC) said in its recent report.

During the month of January - March 2017, the total demand for the precious metal stood at 131.2 tonnes, WGC noted this in its 'Gold Demand Trends' report for Q1 2018.

In terms of value, the demand for gold fell by 8 percent and stands at Rs 31,800 crore, as against Rs 34,440 crore during the same period in 2017.

"The decline in demand can be attributed to a number of reasons, including the rising local gold prices, a substantial drop in the number of auspicious wedding days during the period compared to the previous year, and anticipation of an import duty cut in the Union Budget," WGC, India, Managing Director P R Somasundaram said.

"The transition to GST, especially by the unorganized sector, also affected demand to a certain extent," he said.

He added that the trade sentiments was muted post the exposure of bank scam (PNB) which continued till Akshaya Tritiya.

The demand for jewelry in India, declined by 12 percent to 87.7 tonnes during the first quarter of 2018, as against 99.2 tonnes during the same period in 2017.

In terms of value, the jewelry demand during the first quarter of 2018 shrunk by 7 percent to Rs 24,130 crore from Rs 26,050 crore in the corresponding period last year.

Total investment demand for the period between January - March declined by 13 percent at 27.9 tonnes as against 32 tonnes during the same quarter previous year.

In terms of value, the demand for gold investment during the first quarter was Rs 7,660 crore, a steep fall of 9 percent as against Rs 8,390 crore during the same period during the previous year.

The total recycled gold in India also declined by 3 percent during the first quarter of 2018 and stood at 14.1 tonnes as against 14.5 tonnes during the same period of 2017.

"The first quarter in India is not naturally a dynamic period for gold as people usually settle their other financial commitments for tax purposes. Moreover, there was also no catalyst like duty cut to trigger demand," Somasundaram said.

The gold imports to India also saw a dip by 50 percent during the first quarter of 2018 to 153 tonne as against 260 tonnes during in the same period last year.

"The imports declined mainly on account of subdued consumer demand, down stocking following the GST transitional period and also on expectations of duty cut in the budget," he added.

For fiscal 2018, he said, that the gold demand in India is expected to be in the range of 700-800 tonnes.

"We are positive about the gold demand going forward due to the expectation of better monsoon, higher rural income, and overall GDP growth. The compliance standard is growing and in the long run it is going to be positive and transform the industry," he said.