Virus fear in India speeds up gold buyers’ shift to chain stores

Demand for gold slumped to a more than two-decade low last year although it bounced back in the first three months of 2021 on softening gold prices and a sharp pick-up in economic activity.

MUMBAI: The world’s worst coronavirus outbreak is changing the way Indians buy gold, hastening a shift to modern, retail stores.

While buyers have been slowly shifting away from the thousands of family-run jewellry shops that control the bulk of the world’s second-biggest gold market, the pandemic has sped up the process, according to Ramesh Kalyanaraman, executive director at Kalyan Jewellers India Ltd.