A day after C Rangarajan, head of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council, stressed the need to bring down India’s gold demand to 700 ton from the present 1,000 ton, World Gold Council emphasised that government measures to curb the metal’s import are unlikely to affect the demand at a retail level as the factors behind the desire of Indian consumers to own gold remain unchanged.
“The recent price fall has made gold appear even more attractive. Anything that weakens supply in the market may actually push the premiums paid locally for gold higher. We understand the motives of the government in trying to tackle the current account deficit issue but we believe that this specific measure will do little to weaken the demand.
Long-term broad-based measures on further monetisation of gold will be key to policy success,” said Somasundaram PR, managing director, India, World Gold Council (WGC). India is the largest consumer of gold in the world, accounting for nearly one third of global demand and holds a little over 10% of the entire global stocks. WGC has kept the gold demand projection in India for 2013-14 between 865-965 ton.
Source: Economictimes.Indiatimes.com
Source: Bullion Bulletin