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> Western buyers tend to stay away from UAE gold Do Western buyers even buy gold like indians do? Most of Indian buys 22k jewelry. In India, no one knows about

> Western buyers tend to stay away from UAE gold Do Western buyers even buy gold like indians do? Most of Indian buys 22k jewelry. In India, no one knows about accridated. Indians love UAE gold. Lot of indians from USA fly through Emirates just to buy gold from UAE. Indians thinks that UAE gold is more pure than what they can get in USA or India.

anovikov 8y ago
Gold is important for Indians because there is little other ways of saving money there... gold demand in India is huge.
- sidm83 8y ago
  This was the case earlier but not so for a while. Current use of gold is mainly for jewellery, especially in weddings. This is a typical bride in South India - https://www.bookeventz.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/xcover-3.jpg.pagespeed.ic.qgVHu7bzsP.jpg https://www.bookeventz.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/x... Since about 2-3 decades, apart from use in jewellery, gold has been at best an 'alternative asset class' here. Unless of course one needs to hide cash income from the tax man.
  - checker659 8y ago
    Unless the lady in the photo is rich, I bet most of her jewellery is fake.
    - govg 8y ago
      Actually not. It is a huge matter of "pride" in South Indian weddings when the bride wears a lot of gold, my interpretation is that this is just one way to carry on with the traditions of dowry. Fake jewelry for the purposes of marriage is not as common in South India as it is in other parts of the country.
      - filleokus 8y ago
        Is the jewellery borrowed or rented for the wedding or is it purchased and kept? That looks like a quite substantial amount of gold, like tens of thousands of USD worth. If she/they own that, I would kind of classify her/them as rich.
        xbmcuser 8y ago
        Gold jewelry is a big deal is South India. I know of a maid making $4-500 a month in Singapore. When she went back to visit after 2 years took $8000 worth of gold to give as gift to her family members. In other words 85%-90% of her total earnings over 2 years.
        filleokus 8y ago
        Huh! That's fascinating!
        acct1771 7y ago
        Orrrrr that was the best way to transfer it tax free.
        CPLX 8y ago
        It’s worth seeing this type of Indian gold jewelry up close. The craftsman are incredible skilled at taking relatively small amounts of gold and making them look bigger, through hollow portions, relief patterns on very thin plate, and similar. Go check out an actual market for this type of gold some time, it’s eye opening. With that said it’s still a lot of gold in that photo, to be fair.
    - sizzle 8y ago
      Average South Asian wedding in California is $100-150k I read somewhere, so I wouldn't doubt it being real when weddings are generally paid for by the bride and groom's families.
  - pergadad 8y ago
    Gold jewellery is still prized as an asset that will help young girls to get a "good" husband.
- MarkMc 8y ago
  These days Indians can transfer up to USD 250,000 per year for the purposes of buying US stocks: https://transferwise.com/au/blog/rbi-fema-guidelines-remittances https://transferwise.com/au/blog/rbi-fema-guidelines-remitta... But for mainly cultural reasons Indians still invest huge amounts in Gold, and the opportunity cost is significant. Here is the ratio of gold price to Dow Jones index for last 100 years [0]. Let's say that every 5 years starting in 1915 you had a choice of investing in gold or US stocks for 50 years. Here's the relative outcome for each of your investments for each period: From Date Dow/Gold To Date Dow/Gold Ratio Feb 1915: 2.86 Jan 1965: 25.57 8.94 Feb 1920: 4.42 Feb 1970: 21.27 4.81 Jan 1925: 5.95 Jan 1975: 3.99 0.67 Feb 1930: 13.10 Feb 1980: 1.30 0.10 Jan 1935: 2.91 Feb 1985: 4.30 1.48 Jan 1940: 4.27 Jan 1990: 6.31 1.48 Feb 1945: 4.58 Feb 1995: 10.65 2.33 Jan 1950: 5.77 Feb 2000: 33.78 5.85 Feb 1955: 11.66 Jan 2005: 24.74 2.12 Feb 1960: 17.85 Feb 2010: 9.32 0.52 Jan 1965: 25.57 Jan 2015: 13.62 0.53 Apr 1969: 22.69 Mar 2019: 20.08 0.88 Now (8.94 * 4.81 * 0.67 * ... ) ^ (1/12) = 1.37 So using the past as a guide, for any given 50-year period you could reasonably expect that US stock prices will on average outperform gold by around 37%. But stocks also pay dividends. Let's say the after-tax dividend payment is 1.5% per year - that's a multiple of 2.1 in 50 years. So total return on stocks will outperform gold by a factor of 2.88 over those 50 years. (And that's without the risk of having gold stolen from under your mattress). [0] http://www.macrotrends.net/1378/dow-to-gold-ratio-100-year-historical-chart http://www.macrotrends.net/1378/dow-to-gold-ratio-100-year-h...
helloindia 8y ago
"Indians thinks that UAE gold is more pure than what they can get in USA or India." Gold is cheaper in UAE than in India. That's why there are smuggler rings that give people(migrant workers) free tickets in exchange for carrying gold(that is within legally permissible limit), as human mule[0]. In some instances, they dupe migrant workers into carrying them[1]. [0] https://www.theblaze.com/news/2013/12/24/the-clever-way-almost-every-single-person-on-a-flight-from-dubai-to-india-sneaked-gold-into-the-country https://www.theblaze.com/news/2013/12/24/the-clever-way-almo... [1]https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/migrant-workers-turn-pawns-in-the-hands-of-gold-smugglers-from-dubai/articleshow/58138472.cms https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/migrant-w...

anovikov 8y ago

Gold is important for Indians because there is little other ways of saving money there... gold demand in India is huge.

sidm83 8y ago
This was the case earlier but not so for a while. Current use of gold is mainly for jewellery, especially in weddings. This is a typical bride in South India - https://www.bookeventz.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/xcover-3.jpg.pagespeed.ic.qgVHu7bzsP.jpg https://www.bookeventz.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/x... Since about 2-3 decades, apart from use in jewellery, gold has been at best an 'alternative asset class' here. Unless of course one needs to hide cash income from the tax man.
- checker659 8y ago
  Unless the lady in the photo is rich, I bet most of her jewellery is fake.
  - govg 8y ago
    Actually not. It is a huge matter of "pride" in South Indian weddings when the bride wears a lot of gold, my interpretation is that this is just one way to carry on with the traditions of dowry. Fake jewelry for the purposes of marriage is not as common in South India as it is in other parts of the country.
    - filleokus 8y ago
      Is the jewellery borrowed or rented for the wedding or is it purchased and kept? That looks like a quite substantial amount of gold, like tens of thousands of USD worth. If she/they own that, I would kind of classify her/them as rich.
      - xbmcuser 8y ago
        Gold jewelry is a big deal is South India. I know of a maid making $4-500 a month in Singapore. When she went back to visit after 2 years took $8000 worth of gold to give as gift to her family members. In other words 85%-90% of her total earnings over 2 years.
        filleokus 8y ago
        Huh! That's fascinating!
        acct1771 7y ago
        Orrrrr that was the best way to transfer it tax free.
      - CPLX 8y ago
        It’s worth seeing this type of Indian gold jewelry up close. The craftsman are incredible skilled at taking relatively small amounts of gold and making them look bigger, through hollow portions, relief patterns on very thin plate, and similar. Go check out an actual market for this type of gold some time, it’s eye opening. With that said it’s still a lot of gold in that photo, to be fair.
  - sizzle 8y ago
    Average South Asian wedding in California is $100-150k I read somewhere, so I wouldn't doubt it being real when weddings are generally paid for by the bride and groom's families.
- pergadad 8y ago
  Gold jewellery is still prized as an asset that will help young girls to get a "good" husband.
MarkMc 8y ago
These days Indians can transfer up to USD 250,000 per year for the purposes of buying US stocks: https://transferwise.com/au/blog/rbi-fema-guidelines-remittances https://transferwise.com/au/blog/rbi-fema-guidelines-remitta... But for mainly cultural reasons Indians still invest huge amounts in Gold, and the opportunity cost is significant. Here is the ratio of gold price to Dow Jones index for last 100 years [0]. Let's say that every 5 years starting in 1915 you had a choice of investing in gold or US stocks for 50 years. Here's the relative outcome for each of your investments for each period: From Date Dow/Gold To Date Dow/Gold Ratio Feb 1915: 2.86 Jan 1965: 25.57 8.94 Feb 1920: 4.42 Feb 1970: 21.27 4.81 Jan 1925: 5.95 Jan 1975: 3.99 0.67 Feb 1930: 13.10 Feb 1980: 1.30 0.10 Jan 1935: 2.91 Feb 1985: 4.30 1.48 Jan 1940: 4.27 Jan 1990: 6.31 1.48 Feb 1945: 4.58 Feb 1995: 10.65 2.33 Jan 1950: 5.77 Feb 2000: 33.78 5.85 Feb 1955: 11.66 Jan 2005: 24.74 2.12 Feb 1960: 17.85 Feb 2010: 9.32 0.52 Jan 1965: 25.57 Jan 2015: 13.62 0.53 Apr 1969: 22.69 Mar 2019: 20.08 0.88 Now (8.94 * 4.81 * 0.67 * ... ) ^ (1/12) = 1.37 So using the past as a guide, for any given 50-year period you could reasonably expect that US stock prices will on average outperform gold by around 37%. But stocks also pay dividends. Let's say the after-tax dividend payment is 1.5% per year - that's a multiple of 2.1 in 50 years. So total return on stocks will outperform gold by a factor of 2.88 over those 50 years. (And that's without the risk of having gold stolen from under your mattress). [0] http://www.macrotrends.net/1378/dow-to-gold-ratio-100-year-historical-chart http://www.macrotrends.net/1378/dow-to-gold-ratio-100-year-h...

helloindia 8y ago

"Indians thinks that UAE gold is more pure than what they can get in USA or India." Gold is cheaper in UAE than in India. That's why there are smuggler rings that give people(migrant workers) free tickets in exchange for carrying gold(that is within legally permissible limit), as human mule[0]. In some instances, they dupe migrant workers into carrying them[1]. [0] https://www.theblaze.com/news/2013/12/24/the-clever-way-almost-every-single-person-on-a-flight-from-dubai-to-india-sneaked-gold-into-the-country https://www.theblaze.com/news/2013/12/24/the-clever-way-almo... [1]https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/migrant-workers-turn-pawns-in-the-hands-of-gold-smugglers-from-dubai/articleshow/58138472.cms https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/migrant-w...