Commodity Online MUMBAI: Indian consumers are seen very keen on gold when compared to US as gold sales in US have been falling since November 2008 due to the recession. However, according to World Gold Council’s recent study on ‘Gold Demand Trends’, Indian consumers would accumulate gold in 2008 in the with the gold prices drop.
The combination of gold's safe heaven appeal and extreme uncertainty surrounding other asset classes should see consumers continue to take advantage of any dips in the price the investment motive to buy gold in the region remains strong, World Gold Council (WGC) said in its latest report on 'Gold Demand Trends'.
Fewer wedding days in the current quarter as compared to the same quarter in 2008, will also have negative impact on gold demand, the report said.
Jewelry sales at specialty jewelers during the 2008 November-December holiday selling season in the U.S. market were down 18.5 percent, according to preliminary figures just released by the U.S. government.
This was the largest decline in the past several decades, since separate data has been tabulated for specialty jewelers.
For the month of November, specialty jewelers’ sales were down 16.4 percent (revised from preliminary data showing a decline of 16.0 percent), while jewelry merchants’ sales were down by 19.4 percent in December. Both of these figures are subject to modest revisions over the next several months, but the magnitude of the decline will likely be relatively unchanged.
Early indicators had suggested that December sales did not decline by as much as November’s results; however, the “official” tabulation is in, and it appears that December specialty jewelers’ sales were extremely weak.
