STORY: Indian consumers have been forced to trade in gold ornaments to afford new jewelery…
As fluctuating U.S. tariffs have caused prices to soar.
The precious metal reached record high prices of over $3,245 an ounce on Monday (April 14).
Meanwhile, domestic gold prices are nearing $1,116 per 10 grams, according to Mumbai jeweler Kumar Jain.
He said as it’s wedding season, with almost 80,000 taking place next month, people swapping in old gold has become a trend.
According to jewelers, these old bangles and rings are later melted and turned into gold bars for immediate exchange.
Local customer Samaira said that the rate of gold was almost twice what she had paid previously.
“We had come here to resell our gold jewellery because there is a wedding in our family. The gold prices have increased a lot so we have no option but to exchange our old jewellery. I bought the old jewelery during my wedding and the price was around $583 – but now, the prices have soared up to over $1,100 dollars. So, we have no option but to exchange our old jewelery to buy new jewelery.”
Jewelers also said they were experiencing less than half their usual customer traffic.
India is the second largest consumer of gold after China.
Jewelery makes up nearly 70% of India’s total gold demand.
