Monday, May 28, 2012
Dubai The Indian rupee’s rapid decline has taken the sheen off Dubai’s gold and jewellery retail prospects in the past two weeks, with prospective shoppers preferring to send funds back to their home country and making full use of the exchange rate benefits. Interestingly, this sentiment has taken hold at a time when gold prices have dropped and the dollar strengthened.
Same-store sales at some of the leading jewellery chains are reportedly down by 20-30 per cent from a month ago. More worryingly, the prospects of an improvement in the first few days of June look remote.
“It’s proving to be a quiet period for the trade and if the rupee’s weakness continues it will not bode well in the weeks leading up to summer,” said Cyriac Varghese of Sky Jewellery.
“By then the jewellery market will be taking another dip during the summer with the majority of consumers heading for their breaks.”
The extended buying dip comes at a most inopportune time for retailers and more so for habitual gold buyers, given that the metal’s price has dipped by quite a margin in recent weeks. It was principally brought on by the Eurozone volatility and as investors bought into the dollar.
By Manoj Nair ?Associate Editor
Gulf News 2012. All rights reserved.
