Gold imports dip 77% to $1.11 billion in August

New Delhi: Gold imports fell by 77.45 percent to USD 1.11 billion in August due to sliding prices of the metal in both global and domestic markets.

According to the data of the commerce ministry, gold imports had stood at USD 4.95 billion in August last year.

The imports of the metal have been declining since February this year. Dip in the imports help contain the current account deficit (CAD).

The contraction helped narrowing the trade deficit to USD 7.67 billion in August this year as against USD 12.4 billion in the same month of 2015.

The imports mainly take care of demand of jewellery industry.

For the full year, CAD stood at USD 22.1 billion, 1.1 percent of GDP, as against USD 26.8 billion, 1.3 percent, in 2014-15.

As per the data, silver imports too dipped to USD 130.32 million in August as against USD 363.41 million in the same month last year.

MMTC-PAMP Managing Director Rajesh Khosla had stated that falling gold imports may be a great news to the government as it is helping keep CAD under check but it seems nobody is bothered about growing smuggling of the yellow metal.

The country's total official gold imports declined to 60 tonnes in April-July of this fiscal, much lower than 250 tonnes in the year-ago period.

India, the world's second biggest gold consumer after China, imported 650 tonnes in the 2015-16 fiscal.