Gold demand falls 16 per cent
Gold demand fell 16 percent in the second quarter as price swings discouraged purchases by jewelers, the biggest buyers of the precious metal, the producer-funded World Gold Council said.
By Agencies |
LONDON: Gold demand fell 16 percent in the second quarter as price swings discouraged purchases by jewelers, the biggest buyers of the precious metal, the producer-funded World Gold Council said.
Global demand dropped to 801.6 metric tons from 959.8 tons a year earlier, the London-based World Gold Council said. That was the third straight quarterly decline and the lowest level of demand since the third quarter of 2004.
Jewelry demand fell 24 per cent to 562.5 tons, a three-year low.
Gold's price swings in the quarter were the most for that period since 1982. The metal climbed to a 26-year high in New York on May 12 and then plunged by one-quarter a month later. Buyers from India, world's biggest user, cut purchases by 38 per cent, Indian jewelry usage slumped 43 per cent.
``If the price is moving around, people in India will be nervous and just won't want to buy,'' Jill Leyland, economic adviser to the Gold Council, said. ``It doesn't matter how high or low the price. The important thing is that it's perceived to be stable.''
A pick-up in jewelry demand in the second half is ``critical'' to sending gold prices higher for the whole year, Citigroup Inc. analyst John Hill said in an Aug. 9 report. Jewelers made up 85 per cent of the consumer demand for gold in the second quarter.
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