The imports of gold declined by about 13.5% to $27.4 billion in 2016-17 compared to total imports of $31.7 billion in 2015-16. This decline in imports is expected to keep a lid on the current account deficit. The softening prices of gold in the domestic and world market is one of the reasons for the decline. However, on a month-on-month basis, gold import jumped to $4.17 billion in March as against $974 million in the same month previous year.
In volume terms, the country imported 560.32 tonnes of gold during the April-January period of the last fiscal. In contrast gold imports had aggregated to 968.06 tonnes in the entire 2015-16 fiscal, and 915.47 tonnes in 2014-15.
India is one of the largest gold importers in the world, and the imports mainly take care of demand from the jewellery industry.