Families sell gold to survive cash crunch
Indian households are estimated to be sitting on 24,000 tonnes in jewellery
In Mumbai’s jewellery bazaar, Kavita Jogani gingerly places her wedding bangles on the shopkeeper’s scales, one of the thousands of Indians parting with their most cherished asset — gold.
It was not an easy decision — Jogani was desperate after her garment business took a severe hit in the past year and a half with multiple coronavirus lockdowns, making it difficult to pay shop bills and the salaries of her 15 employees.
The headline growth numbers suggest Asia’s third-largest economy is rebounding from the economic crisis unleashed by Covid-19, but there is no end yet to the financial pain for many Indians.
Soaring cost of living
Business closures and job losses pushed more than 230 million Indians into poverty in the past year, according to a study by Azim Premji University, leaving many struggling to pay rent, school fees and hospital bills. Their difficulties have been compounded in recent weeks by soaring prices for electricity, fuel and other items.
Desperate for cash, many families and small businesses have been putting up gold jewellery — their last resort — as collateral to secure short-term loans to tide them over.
Banks disbursed “loans against gold jewellery” worth Rs4.71 trillion ($64 billion) in the first eight months of 2021, a whopping 74 per cent jump yearon-year, central bank data showed. And many of these loans have gone sour with borrowers unable to keep up with repayments, leaving lenders to auction off the gold.
Love for gold
Indians bought 315.9 tonnes of gold-use jewellery in 2020, almost as much as the Americas, Europe and the Middle East combined, according to the World Gold Council. Indian households are estimated to be sitting on 24,000 tonnes — worth $1.5 trillion — in coins, bars and jewellery. “It is the only social security for the woman or any household because there is no such social security programme from the government,” said Dinesh Jain, director at the All India Gem and Jewellery Domestic Council. “Gold is like liquid cash. You encash it in at any time of the day and night,” he said.
Kumar Jain, 63, whose family has run a shop in Mumbai’s historic Zaveri Bazaar for 106 years, says he has never seen so many people coming to sell. Jain says his customers — predominantly women — have sold a vast array of personal jewellery in recent months including gold bangles, rings, necklaces and earrings.