Indian gold demand has perked up with the fall, looking forward to the Hindu light festival, Diwali, that takes place around now. But experts say that demand is down this year overall.

From The Singapore Business Times:

“India is the world’s largest consumer of gold, importing 400-800 tonnes of gold a year, according to various trade body estimates. But this year, high prices and the global economic meltdown have taken a toll on demand.

Ms Bhat [a top official of HDFC Bank] said that total imports at the end of this year could be half that of last year. World Gold Council’s (WGC) data shows that India imported 712.6 tonnes of gold last year.

HDFC is one of the 23 banks licensed to import gold and sell to traders and jewellers. Trade sources put it neck-and-neck with ICICI Bank for top position in the retail bullion segment, and one of the top 10 in the wholesale segment.”

— “India Awash In Foreign Investment” (October 15, 2009)

My Comment:

Note: ICICI Bank is the same bank that uses Penson Financial Services, as I blogged before. That’s the Penson that denies that its software is shown in the video posted by Matt Taibbi last week. The video supposedly shows software that enables naked shorting.