India has so far imported only around 57 tons of gold this year. In June, the Bombay Bullion Association said this week that the gold imports were only around 10 tons.

Bullion dealers also point out that there is a new-found love in gold between India, the world’s largest gold consuming country and Dubai, a top global gold trading city. Dubai which generally exports gold to India is these days importing the yellow metal from India.

Dominic Abraham, a gold dealer in southern India’s Kerala state said that India might be exporting around 5-10 tons of scrap gold items to Dubai, which has several large India-based gold jewellery show rooms.

While gold imports by India, one of the top importers of the yellow metals in the world, have fallen this year, gold exports from India have gone up. And, thus, Dubai has emerged as the largest export market for Indian gold coins and jewellery items.

India was the top gold trading partner of Dubai for 2008. While gold trade through Dubai rose 53 per cent to $29 billion in 2008 against $19bn in the previous year, the country that carried out the largest gold trade with the Emirates city was India.

Traders say gold trading between India and Dubai has boomed thanks to the fact that there are a large number of jewellery shops owned by Indian businessmen in Dubai, and across other Gulf countries.