Gold imports in January decline 10% to 2.65 tonne

London (Feb 3)  Starting the year 2018 on a dull note, gold imports in Ahmedabad declined by more than 10% in January, import data shows.

GSECL, which handles cargo at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport, said on Friday that 2.65 tonne gold was imported at the Air Cargo Complex in January 2018, 10.5% lower than 2.97 tonne imported in the same month of the previous year.

January imports of the yellow metal were the lowest in the past four months. GSECL said that gold imports stood at 5.23 tonne, 14.40 tonne and 13.18 tonne in October, November and December respectively.

The data shows that 63.64 tonne gold was imported at the Air Cargo Complex in the first ten months of the current financial year, which was 56% higher than 40.73 tonne imported in the same period of the last year.

The sharp rise notwithstanding, import of the yellow metal in the city is a far cry from the highs of a few years ago. The GSECL figures show that the imports stood at 84 tonne in 2015-16, 152 tonne in 2014-15, and over 91 tonne in the year before that.

Silver imports at 15-month low

0.17 tonne silver was imported at the Air Cargo Complex in January 2018, 58% lower than 0.41 tonne in the same month of previous year.

GSECL data shows that the January imports of silver were the lowest since November 2016 when the figure stood at 0.06 tonne. The imports had come to a halt at the time as trade and business had come to a standstill owing to the note ban decision of November 8, 2016.

For the first ten months of the current year, silver imports stood at 117 tonne, over nine times more than 12.59 tonne in the same period of last year. This was mainly due to surge in imports in May, July, September and October.

DNA