India Silver imports poised to recover on monsoon.

Mumbai - India's Silver imports are poised to recover from a first half slump as normal monsoon rains will boost rural incomes and therefore demand, industry officials said Thursday.

More than 60% of India's Silver demand comes from farmers, who stash their savings in silver bangles and other jewelry. Good monsoon rains boost farm output, enhancing the spending power of the millions of people employed in agriculture.


India's weather department has forecast that June-September monsoon rains will be normal, providing relief after the country last year experienced one of its worst-ever droughts, which hurt farm output and left little scope for rural spending.




Silver demand has subsequently been muted this year. High prices have also dented purchases, and imports of the metal are estimated to have fallen to 300-500 tons in the January-June period from 600 tons a year earlier, industry officials said.



Daily sales are currently around 2.5 tons, despite jewelers offering price discounts of 10%-15%, Kothari said. But he added that silver scrap sales have jumped to 500 kg to a ton from close to nothing a few months ago.
In Mumbai, the country's main bullion market, silver prices were INR30,095 a kilogram Wednesday, just shy of the all-time high of INR30,400.