Gold imports cross 560 tonnes in 10 months of FY17

Gold imports dipped by about 30% to $2.04 bn in Jan as against $2.91 bn in the same month last year

India has imported 560.32 tonnes of gold during April-January period of the current financial year, Parliament was informed on Friday.

Gold imports aggregated to 968.06 tonnes in the entire 2015-16 fiscal and 915.47 tonnes in 2014-15, Minister of State for Finance Arjun Ram Meghwal said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.

As per rough estimates, he said, gold demand in the country is 800-900 tonnes per annum.

Meghwal also said that with an aim to reduce demand for gold coins minted outside India and to recycle the gold available in the country, government has introduced India Gold Coin in 2015.

According to the provisional data of the Commerce Ministry, India's gold imports fell by about 32.7 per cent to $19.74 billion during the April-January period of 2016-17.

Gold imports dipped by about 30 per cent to $2.04 billion in January as against $2.91 billion in the same month last year.

The contraction in imports helped in narrow the trade deficit to $86.38 billion in April-January period as against $107.74 billion in the same period previous year.

India is among the largest importers of gold which mainly takes care of demand from jewellers.