New Delhi: There is a change in the buying trend in the country's jewellery market. Brokerage firm Nuvama has said in its latest report that the demand for gold jewellery may increase by 18 percent in the second half of the calendar year 2024. The upcoming festive season will be a major contributor to this. According to the report, the rich bought gold jewellery in the first quarter. At the same time, the second quarter saw an increase in the sale of low-priced jewellery.

Semi-urban and rural markets are also contributing significantly to jewellery sales. The report said that retailers are expanding their store network to meet the expected increase in customer demand. The report said that the key indicator of improvement in jewellery sales is gold imports and its imports have shown strong improvement in August.

Gold imports more than doubled

Gold imports more than doubled to a record high of $10.06 billion in August due to a huge cut in customs duty and festive demand. Gold imports stood at $4.93 billion in the same period last year. Gold imports have an impact on the country's current account deficit. Gold imports declined by 4.23 percent to $12.64 billion during April-July. Gold imports had risen 30 percent to $45.54 billion in the previous fiscal.

Highest import from Switzerland

Switzerland is the largest importer of gold with a share of around 40 per cent. This is followed by UAE with a share of 16 per cent and South Africa with a share of around 10 per cent. Gold accounts for more than five per cent of the country's total imports. India is the world's second largest consumer of gold after China. Imports mainly meet the demand of the jewellery industry. In the budget, the government had reduced the import duty from 15 per cent to six per cent.