TL;DR India’s relationship with gold reveals a tension between household behaviour and national economics. Even as the government urges citizens to reduce gold purchases, India’s demand for gold continues to rise, especially during the festive and wedding season. At the same time, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has steadily increased its own gold reserves and shifted a larger share of them back into domestic vaults. Gold imports have nearly doubled since 2017-18, crossing ₹4.89 lakh crore in 2024-25, while combined gold and silver imports now exceed ₹5.3 lakh crore. Together, these trends show that gold in India is not merely a form of consumption; it is also savings, security, reserve management, and a response to uncertainty.

Context

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent appeal asking Indians to avoid buying gold for a year landed at the intersection of economics and culture. In a country where gold is simultaneously an ornament, an inheritance, an inflation hedge, an emergency savings instrument, and a social signal, such a request was never going to be treated as a routine economic advisory.

But the government’s concern might be rooted in macroeconomics rather than symbolism. India imports nearly all the gold it consumes. Even a small surge in household demand translates into higher dollar outflows, pressure on the current account deficit, and stress on foreign exchange reserves.

The paradox is striking. Even as the government urges citizens to reduce gold purchases, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) itself has been steadily increasing its gold reserves. Over the past few years, the RBI has also shifted a larger share of its bullion holdings back to India.

The story of gold in India today is therefore not simply about jewellery demand. It is about reserve management, household finance, external vulnerability, and a deeper distrust of paper assets that continues to shape Indian savings behaviour.

With this context, we shall now look at how gold imports, demand, and consumption trends have evolved in India.

Who compiles this data?

The data on the global gold demand and supply is compiled by the World Gold Council (WGC), and the data on the imports and exports of gold is compiled by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry in India.

Where can I download clean & structured data related to this?

Clean, standardised, structured, and ready-to-use datasets related to Gold Imports and exports, demand and supply are available on Dataful.

Key Insights

Global demand for Gold at an all-time High

India’s quarterly gold demand has always moved with the calendar. Purchases rise around festivals, weddings, and other buying seasons, which is why Q3 and Q4 consistently report higher volumes than Q1 and Q2. But beneath this seasonal rhythm, the data also points to a gradual rise in the overall baseline of demand.

In 2010, quarterly demand mostly stayed near the 1,000–1,100 tonne range. By the late 2010s and early 2020s, several quarters were crossing 1,200 tonnes, with Q3 repeatedly emerging as the strongest period. The highest figures appear in 2025, where both Q3 (1302.98) and Q4 (1302.8) stand above all previous years.

The pattern also reveals how resilient gold consumption has remained despite economic shocks. Even during weaker phases such as 2020, demand recovered quickly in subsequent quarters. Rather than disappearing, purchases appear deferred and then compressed into later festive or wedding cycles.

India’s Precious Metals Import Bill Has Nearly Doubled

India’s dependence on imported precious metals has expanded sharply over the past eight years, with gold imports in particular reaching record highs. Trade data shows that the value of gold imports more than doubled from ₹2.17 lakh crore in 2017-18 to ₹4.89 lakh crore in 2024-25. Gold imports dipped in 2019-20 during slowing economic conditions and then surged after the pandemic. By 2021-22, imports had crossed ₹3.4 lakh crore before rising further to nearly ₹4.9 lakh crore in 2024-25. The scale of the increase is economically significant because India imports nearly all of the gold it consumes. Unlike industrial imports that directly feed export production, a substantial share of gold imports enters household savings, jewellery markets, and informal wealth storage.

Silver imports followed a far more volatile path. Imports collapsed to just ₹5,960 crore during the pandemic year of 2020-21 before rebounding dramatically over the next three years. By 2023-24, silver imports had risen to over ₹45,000 crore.

Combined gold and silver imports crossed ₹5.3 lakh crore in 2024-25. This makes precious metals one of India’s largest import categories after crude oil and electronics.

The broader macroeconomic concern is straightforward: India earns foreign exchange primarily through exports and capital inflows, but large commodity imports increase pressure on the trade balance. That helps explain recent government messaging around reducing non-essential gold purchases.

The RBI is bringing more Gold home

India’s gold policy today reflects a striking contradiction. While policymakers are urging households to reduce gold purchases in order to conserve foreign exchange, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) itself has steadily expanded its gold reserves and increasingly shifted those reserves back into domestic vaults. The distinction, however, lies in the economic role gold plays for the state versus households. RBI data shows that India’s official gold holdings have risen sharply over the past two decades. Total gold deposits with the RBI increased from 357 tonnes in September 2003 to 880 tonnes by March 2026.

More importantly, the composition and location of these holdings have changed significantly in recent years. The data reveals two simultaneous shifts: First, the RBI has steadily increased the total quantity of gold held as part of India’s reserve assets. Second, a growing share of that gold is now being stored domestically rather than overseas with the Bank of England (BoE) and the Bank for International Settlements (BIS).

In September 2020, India held more gold abroad (366.9 tonnes) than domestically (292.30 tonnes). By March 2026, that pattern had reversed dramatically: domestic holdings rose to 680.05 tonnes, while overseas holdings fell to 197.67 tonnes. This marks one of the largest shifts in the geographical composition of India’s gold reserves in recent decades. After years of geopolitical instability, sanctions risks, currency volatility, and concerns around dollar dependence, central banks across the world have increasingly treated gold as a strategic reserve asset. Gold provides diversification against fluctuations in reserve currencies such as the US dollar and euro, while also functioning as a hedge during periods of global financial stress.

Why does it matter?

Gold sits at the centre of India’s economic contradictions. For households, it acts as an inflation hedge, an emergency savings instrument, an inheritance, and a store of trust beyond formal finance. But for the broader economy, rising gold imports increase pressure on the trade deficit, foreign exchange reserves, and the rupee because India imports nearly all the gold it consumes. At the same time, the RBI’s growing gold reserves reflect how even central banks increasingly see bullion as protection against geopolitical instability, currency volatility, and dependence on the US dollar. The story of gold, therefore, becomes larger than jewellery demand; it is about how both citizens and states prepare for uncertainty in an unstable global economy.

Key Numbers

• Global Demand for Gold (All Q4, in tonnes)

  2018: 1241 ; 2021: 1255 ; 2023: 1287; 2025: 1302

• Import Bill of Gold and Silver (in Lakh Crores)

  Gold: 2017-18: 2.17; 2020-21: 2.54; 2022-23: 2.80; 2024-25: 4.89

  Silver: 2017-18: 0.2; 2020-21: 0.05; 2022-23: 0.42; 2024-25: 0.40

• Gold deposits with RBI (in Tonnes, at end of March)

  Held Domestically: 2022: 296; 2024: 408; 2026: 680

  Held with BoE and BIS: 2022: 453.5; 2024: 387.3; 2026: 197.67