India’s gold demand has been revised downwards by 12 per cent to 750-850 tonnes for this year after it fell by 18 per cent to 131 tonnes in the second quarter in view of sharp jump in prices and jewellers' strike following new regulations, WGC said on Thursday.
Earlier in May, the World Gold Council (WGC) had projected overall gold demand in the country to be in the range of 850-950 tonnes for this year as against the actual demand of 864 tonnes in 2015.
Releasing the Gold Demand Trends for April-June quarter of 2016, the WGC said gold demand fell by 18 per cent to 131 tonnes due to rise in price, government regulations and jewellers’ strike.
“There has been a significant jump in gold prices impacting demand in the first half of the year. So, we have scaled down overall demand to 750-850 tonnes for 2016. let's see how prices will move in the second half of the year,” WGC India Director Somasundaram PR told reporters.
During first six months of 2016, the country's gold demand fell by 30 per cent to 247.4 tonnes from 351.5 tonnes in the year-ago period, he said.
“High gold prices and a regulatory push for transparency through PAN cards, tax collection at source and excise duty on jewellery, coupled with weaker rural incomes kept demand subdued during the first half of the year,” he added.