Mumbai: The import of gold is likely to decline by 40 per cent in the last four months of the year to about 200 tonnes due to fall in demand for the yellow metal amid high prices and poor monsoon, Bombay Bullion Association said on Tuesday.
"Import of the precious metal is not very encouraging and we expect about 40 per cent drop in shipments into the country at 200 tonnes in the September-December period. The rising prices of the metal, monsoon deficit and fewer wedding dates this year will mainly restrict the demand and hence the imports," BBA President Prithviraj Kothari told reporters.
As 70 per cent of gold consumption takes place in the rural market in physical form, poor monsoon will hurt incomes of farmers and consequently affect the demand, he said, adding, "And thus overall imports this year will be restricted to 700 odd tonnes against 969 tonnes last year".
Import of gold during January-July period stood at 455 tonnes and in July alone the imports were below 40 tonnes, he said.
However, if the international prices decline and the rupee strengthens, there might be some improvement in the investment demand, he said.
MCX gold was on Tuesday traded at Rs 30,222 per 10 grams, while in the international market it was at $1,629.70 an ounce.
Talking about silver, Kothari said this year the imports are likely to be 3,000 tonnes compared to 4,700 tonnes last year due to Rupee appreciation and rising prices.
Meanwhile, he said that BBA would be organising three-day Gold Convention beginning from August 24 to deliberate on issues like launch of more paper investment products like ETFs, allocation of fund for Research and Development and various other issues.
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