India's appetite for gold insatiable as ever

By Atul Prakash

ALLAHABAD, India (Reuters) - Gold. It's the ultimate luxury gift and nowhere more so than in India where brides are draped in gold from dowries laden with jewellery.

With around ten million brides getting married every year in India, many festooned with gold, it's no wonder that India is the world's largest consumer of gold.

India accounts for 20 percent of annual global demand for gold, devouring 800 tonnes of the metal annually, mostly as jewellery.

Ruchi Midha, a typical middle-class Indian bride, received four gold necklaces, eight bangles, six pairs of earrings and five rings -- all made from 22 carat gold -- from her parents, relatives and friends for her wedding.

That's roughly standard for middle-class brides in India where gold -- known as "Stridhan", or woman's wealth -- is seen as financial security for brides.

"Gold is deeply entangled and interwoven with the Indian culture and no custom is complete without gold jewellery, be it marriages or any other ceremony," said Neeraj Mehrotra, a partner in Manmohandas Jewellers, a leading Allahabad jewellery store.

Gold prices hit a 26-year high of $730 an ounce last year and surged 60 percent in two years. But its glitter has shown no signs of fading in India, the world's second-most populous country.

It's seen as a portable form of wealth in a country where stocks and bonds are sometimes viewed with suspicion despite an economic boom that is bringing affluence to many Indians.

As the Indian economy steams ahead by more than eight percent annually in the past four years, an ever increasing stream of money is going into gold purchases.

"India looks poised to remain the world's foremost gold consumer for many years to come. Its dynamic population growth and strong cultural and religious affinity to gold will continue to underpin structural demand," said Natalie Dempster, investment research manager at London-based World Gold Council.

EXPENSIVE DOWRIES

Over generations, Indian households have accumulated an estimated 15,000 tonnes of gold worth $320 billion -- 40 times the amount of gold held by the country's central bank and nearly double the amount held by the U.S. central bank.

Marriages are costly affairs in India, where many families spend more than two years income on the wedding of a single daughter.

"Gold is considered an investment for life, so Indian women continue buying it, to be given away to their daughters or grand-daughters," said Rashmi Sanyal, a journalist in New Delhi.

Jewellery shops are packed with people who come to buy gold for weddings, which take place on auspicious days in the Hindu calendar. Demand jumps during the festive season from August to November when Diwali, the festival of lights, is held.