Decline in gold and crude oil prices to help improve BoP position: Rangarajan

22 Apr 2013 Evaluate

Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council (PMEAC) Chairman C Rangarajan has said that the decline in gold and crude oil prices will have favorable impact on the country’s macro-economic indicators especially for the high current account deficit (CAD) and the overall Balance of Payment (BoP) position.

Recently, the gold price fell to 21 month low to around Rs 26,000 per 10 grams in the domestic markets due to the major sell off in the global markets. It had touched an all-time high of Rs 32,975 per 10 grams on November 27, 2012. On the other hand, Brent crude oil futures have seen a 10 percent price slide to below $100 a barrel this month. The softening of crude oil and gold prices will help to improve the CAD, which was widened to historic high of 6.7 percent of GDP for the third quarter ended December 2012.

India is a largest importer of gold and crude oil and its imports represent around 40-45 percent of country's total imports. However, the government is putting all efforts to reduce the attractiveness of gold as an asset. In January, 2013 the import duty on gold was hiked to 6% from 4% to check the import and also linked gold exchange traded fund (ETF) schemes offered by mutual funds to gold deposit schemes of banks with a view to increase availability of physical gold in the market. 

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