Gold demand hits two-year low as India loses appetite

Gold demand fell to its lowest level in more than two years in the second quarter, the World Gold Council said on Thursday, as a drop in buying in major consumers India and China outweighed a record quarter for central bank purchases.
Overall gold consumption fell 7 percent or nearly 76 tonnes to 990 tonnes in the three months to June, its lowest quarterly level since the first three months of 2010, the WGC said in its quarterly Gold Demand Trends report.
Jewellery and investment demand both fell substantially. Jewellery consumption was down 72.3 tonnes at 418.3 tonnes, while investment fell 88.3 tonnes to 302 tonnes.
The WGC's managing director for investment research, Marcus Grubb, said he still expected demand growth in the full year but that forecast was heavily dependent on gold-friendly policy moves from central banks and a recovery in Indian demand.
"The real wild card is India. It depends how weak the latter part of the year is and/or how much of an improvement we see," he said. "It also depends on what happens from a macro perspective between now and the end of the year to catalyse more buying.
"The obvious one would be a Greek exit from the euro zone," he said. "It also depends on how things pan out
in North America and whether we get a policy response of more quantitative easing in North America
and Europe.
"In that scenario, you would see gold demand higher than last year. In a scenario that is more benign, where we don't have a major event by the end of the year, and India improves (only) a bit, it will be very close to last year."
Investment and jewellery demand from consumers in India, the world's number one gold market, plummeted 38 percent to 181.3 tonnes in the second quarter. Buying has been hit by a hike in import duties and record-high local prices due to a weak rupee.
"It's probable that the rupee will have a better second half, and that might stem some of the decline in gold demand," Grubb said.
"Also, you have a seasonally stronger period for gold demand because you have Diwali and other festivals," he added. "So we're forecasting a better second half but still a very challenging environment in India for gold."