Inflation to keep gold demand high, finds RBI panel
“A necessary pre-condition for reducing the excessive demand for precious metal is to ensure benign inflationary environment along with achieving and maintaining macro-economic stability,” the working group said in its final report released on Wednesday.
Worried over rising gold imports and a consequent worsening CAD, the Reserve Bank of India had formed a working group to suggest measures for the same. The group had invited comments from stakeholders on its draft report it submitted in January. The group has given various recommendations to reduce gold demand, but maintains that it will be a big challenge to do so as gold has given the highest returns to investors off late.
“To make a candid submission, as of now, there appears to be no close substitute to wean away investors’ attention from gold in terms of the returns, liquidity and ease of undertaking operations,” said the report.
A sustained high inflation rate stretching over two years since 2010 has driven investors to pour money into gold and real estate. Average inflation rate was around 7% for five years from 2006-2007 onwards while average gold price surged over 23% in the same period.
To counter inflation rate, investors have imported nearly 1,080 tonne of gold in 2011-12, about
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