After the concerted western Central Bank effort, led by the BIS, to squelch Indian gold imports by eliminating the most commonly used currency bills failed, the fake news about Indian gold imports coming from the World Gold Council amplified. The WGC missed its Q1 2017 forecast for Indian gold imports by a country mile, as Indian gold imports doubled in Q1 to 253 tonnes. Please note that these numbers do not include the amount of gold smuggled into India, which has been estimated to be 200-300 tonnes annually.
Now the World Gold Council is promoting the narrative that Indian gold imports will average only 90 tonnes per quarter the rest of the year because of a new General Sales Tax scheduled to be implemented on July 1st plus restrictions to be implemented on gold dore bar imports. However, this is again an ill-fated prediction, likely for the purpose of spreading anti-gold propaganda, which seems to be one of the World Gold Council’s general directives.
First, in April and May, the premiums to world gold paid in India suggest that April/May imports already are well into triple-digits. And the WGC’s arguments are absurd, as expressed by John Brimelow in his Gold Jottings report:
This post was published at Investment Research Dynamics on May 30, 2017.
Follow on Twitter
Recent Comments