The numbers behind Indians' obsession for gold

Gold continues to be an obsession for Indians.

As Table 1 shows, gold imports by weight have jumped again to the levels that helped cause current-account weakness in 2013 - although the value of the imports has not jumped proportionately.

Click here: India's love affair with gold

This may be because of the falling price of the asset, shown in Table 2 - though movement of the rupee has meant that Indians don't benefit from the full pass-through of global price falls.

The equivalent calculations for silver are shown in Tables 3 and 4. Yet gold as an investment is not quite as appealing, according to Table 5.

Had an investor bought on Akshaya Tritiya in 2012, even bank deposits, let alone stocks, would have given far better returns.

Clearly, it is the material qualities of gold and not pure returns that are driving demand - as brought home by Tables 6 and 7, which show the declining values of various gold-based financial instruments.