Indian households' gold stash outweighs reserves with top 10 central banks

India’s love affair with gold has reached new heights. According to a study by HSBC Global, Indian households now possess more gold than the collective reserves of the world’s top 10 central banks.

 

Currently, Indian household gold reserves stand at 25,000 tonnes. This is much larger than gold holdings with the central banks of the United States (which leads with 8,133 tonnes), Germany (approximately 3,300 tonnes), Italy, France, Russia, China, Switzerland, India, Japan, and Turkey. As of December 2024, India’s central bank, the Reserve Bank of India, held 876.18 tonnes in gold reserves.

 

Meanwhile, Indian consumers are rewriting other global narratives, too. In 2024, Maruti Suzuki sold more cars in India than its parent company, Suzuki Motor, did across the rest of the world. Maruti’s sales in India topped 1.8 million vehicles, surpassing Suzuki’s global sales (excluding India) of just over 1.4 million. 

 

There’s a quiet but relentless rise of Mixue -- the Chinese tea chain has outpaced both Starbucks and McDonald’s in global store count, boasting over 45,000 outlets worldwide. By comparison, McDonald's had 43,477 locations by the end of 2024, while Starbucks trailed with 40,199. The bubble tea company has already set up shop in a few Indian cities and is eyeing further expansion.

 

For Indian consumers, Tesla is a familiar name — largely thanks to its CEO, Elon Musk, and his imminent foray into India with both electric vehicles and Starlink, his satellite broadband venture. But fewer may realise that Tesla’s fiercest competitor, China’s BYD, is far ahead in its home market. Over the past two months (January and February), BYD has outsold Tesla in mainland China by an 8-to-1 margin. While BYD’s stock surged 50 per cent between December 2024 and February 25, Tesla’s shares slumped by 31 per cent.

 

And if you thought France was the undisputed leader in luxury beauty exports, think again. In 2024, South Korea overtook France to become the largest source of US beauty product imports, commanding a 22 per cent share compared to France’s 17 per cent.