評論
打印
This insatiable appetite is a worry for policymakers. Vast gold imports can destabilise the economy.
這種對黃金的貪婪欲望讓決策者感到擔憂。大量進口黃金會破壞經濟穩定。
During the 2013 “taper tantrum”, when India’s foreign-exchange reserves were lower than they are now, a rush of gold imports helped push the current-account deficit to 4.8% of gdp and fuelled worries of a currency crisis.
在2013年的“縮減恐慌”(taper tantrum)期間，當印度的外匯儲備低于現在的水平時，一股黃金進口熱潮將經常項目赤字推高至GDP的4.8%，并引發了對貨幣危機的擔憂。
Savings stashed away as idle gold could be put to more productive use elsewhere.
用來存儲閑置黃金的儲蓄本可以有其他更有成效的用途。
Indian households hold 22,500 tonnes of the physical metal—five times the stock in America’s bullion depository at Fort Knox and worth $1.4trn at current prices.
印度民眾持有22500噸實物黃金，是美國諾克斯堡黃金庫存的5倍，按當前價格計算價值1.4萬億美元。
The average family has 11% of its wealth in gold (against 5% in financial assets).
平均每個家庭的財產中有11%是黃金(相比之下，金融資產僅占5%)。
The government has tried using sticks to push people away from bullion.
政府曾試圖用棍棒政策迫使人們遠離黃金。
Import duties hover around 10%, even after cuts in last year’s budget aimed at keeping smuggling in check.
雖然去年為了遏制走私而削減了預算，但進口關稅仍然徘徊在10%左右。
It is also experimenting with carrots that lure savers away from physical gold.
政府還嘗試用胡蘿卜政策引誘儲戶遠離實體黃金。
The central bank has ramped up issuance of sovereign gold bonds, which are denominated in grams of gold.
印度央行加大了以每克黃金計價的主權黃金債券的發行力度。
Of the 86 tonnes’ worth issued since 2015, about 60% were sold after the pandemic began.
在2015年以來發行的86噸黃金中，約60%是在疫情爆發后售出的。
And the gold monetisation scheme, which allows households to hand gold over to a bank and earn interest, was revamped last year to reduce limits on the size of deposits.
此外，去年還對允許家庭將黃金交給銀行并賺取利息的黃金貨幣化計劃進行了改革，以減少對存儲規模的限制。
Lockdowns inadvertently helped the state’s agenda.
疫情封鎖無意中幫助了印度的議程。
Researchers at the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad found that when shops shut and sales of physical gold ground to a halt, some Indians turned to online alternatives.
位于艾哈邁達巴德的印度管理學院的研究人員發現，當商店關門、實體黃金的銷售停止時，一些印度人會轉向網上尋找替代品。
Mobile payments platforms like PhonePe and Google Pay reported rising appetite for digital gold, which is sold online and stored by the seller.
PhonePe和谷歌Pay等移動支付平臺報告稱，人們對數字黃金的需求正在上升。數字黃金在網上銷售，并由賣家存儲。
Money also rushed into gold exchange-traded funds (etfs). Their assets hit 184bn rupees ($2.5bn) in December, a 30% rise in a year.
資金也涌入黃金交易所交易基金(etfs)。去年12月，這些基金的資產達到了1840億盧比(25億美元)，同比增長30%。
Still, only a sliver of the population, mostly well-off urban types and millennials, invest in complex financial products.
但是，仍然只有一小部分人選擇投資復雜的金融產品，其中大多數是富裕的城市居民和千禧一代。
A large part of India’s demand for physical gold comes from rural areas, where it seems in no danger of losing its lustre.
印度對實體黃金的很大一部分需求來自農村地區，在那里，黃金似乎總是有恃無恐。
Those in far-flung villages don’t always have a bank account or a smartphone, making it hard to buy gold online.
那些住在偏遠村莊的人通常沒有銀行賬戶或智能手機，因此很難在網上購買黃金。
Nor could they easily show off digital metal to the neighbours or lend their daughter an etf to wear on her big day.
數字黃金也不便于他們向鄰居炫耀，而且女兒們的婚嫁之日也不可能佩戴黃金交易所交易基金。
