Jewelers in India are preparing for the festival and wedding season, and have consequently raised gold imports by the country threefold in February, according to a Bloomberg report quoted by Art of Jewelry. According to a source familiar with data from the finance ministry, shipments jumped 175% to 96.4 metric tons in February year-on-year. Meanwhile, overseas purchases fell 32% to 595.5 tons in the 11 months leading to February.
Mehul Choksi, chairman of jewellery store chain Gitanjali Gems Ltd., is quoted as saying: “We expect some heavy buying in April as a large number of weddings are expected to take place. The wedding season runs from April to July, so we are expecting some recovery in demand”.
According to a forecast issued by Citigroup last week, demand for gold in India is estimated around 725 tons in 2017, “similar to levels seen the prior year”.
