Note ban squeezed gold demand to 650-750 tonnes, smuggling declined: WGC

Long-term prospects still encouraging given consumers' shift towards organised sales

Despite demonetisation-led India’s demand for gold would decline to 650-750 tonnes in 2016 because of measures adopted by the government to discourage sales of the metal, the World Gold Council (WGC) said in its latest report released on Tuesday.

The country’s gold demand would average 850-950 tonnes every year till 2020 on transformational changes in the system to curb black money and increasing focus on transparency, the report said. A fifth of India’s demand in 2016 was met by smuggled gold, which has become prominent since 2013, when the government started raising the import duty on the metal. The report