Driven by favourable prices in the first half of 2023 and a buoyant demand due to the festive and wedding seasons, gold imports swelled to a six-year high during the year. According to the data by the Ahmedabad Air Cargo Complex (AACC), 58.02 metric tonnes (MT) of gold was imported throughout the year, which went up by 35% against 42.8MT in the previous year.
The last time gold imports surged past this level was in 2017 when annual gold imports stood at 85.54MT in the state.
Gold price stood at Rs 65,300 per 10 gram in the Ahmedabad market on Monday. The price has remained steady over the past five days at this level itself, according to bullion traders and jewellers.
Haresh Acharya, director, India Bullion, and Jewellers’ Association (IBJA), said, “Investors regained their faith in gold as an asset class since Covid. This year too, the returns on gold are to the tune of 20% due to which, investors are increasingly turning towards gold. Moreover, to hedge inflation, gold is also being treated as an alternate currency, pushing the demand up.
If the US Federal Reserve continues to maintain the rate reduction spree, there is a chance gold prices may go further up.”
In 2023, according to gold analysts, the share of investment demand for gold increased slightly whereas that for jewellery went down.
“Generally, 70% of gold purchases are made in the form of jewellery whereas 30% of the volumes go towards investments.
However, lately, due to rise in gold prices, the trend has changed to some extent. Nowadays, about 60% of gold purchase volumes come from jewellery whereas 40% come from bullion,” Acharya added.
Overall, due to the buoyant wedding season in Jan-Feb 2023 and the later part of the year, also propelled purchases of gold.
“Gold price had plunged to a low of Rs 58,000 per 10 gram this year. This is when majority of jewellery and bullion purchases took place. Due to the wedding season, the overall demand remained good as people accepted the new price of gold above the level of Rs 60,000 per 10 gram,” said an Ahmedabad-based jeweller.