The year was bad not just for the stock markets; gold and silver also lost, making it a not-so-memorable year for investors who see the yellow metal as a safe haven.
Gold lost about 6.30% during calendar year 2015; the metal's price was Rs 27,100 per 10 gm on 1 January this year, and the closing price on 31 December, 2015, was Rs 25,390.
Silver, too, witnessed a similar trend, losing almost 8%. Its closing price on 1 January was Rs 36,200 per kg while the price on the last day of calendar 2015 was Rs 33,300 per kg.
Both gold and silver had scaled their throughout-the-year high of Rs 28,500 and Rs 40,150, respectively, on 21 January.
India's gold imports have come down consistently over the years, from $56.5 billion in the 2011-12 fiscal, to $53.8 billion in 2012-13, to $27.70 billion. It was $24.49 billion last year, and in this fiscal, the country imported gold worth $ 22.73 billion in the first eight months (April to November).
Gold prices had touched an all-time high of Rs 33,790 on 28 August, 2013, the day the Indian rupee touched its all-time low of 68.85 against the US dollar.
During the current fiscal, till mid-November, the government has seized gold valued Rs 429.84 crore, said Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in a written reply in the Lok Sabha recently.
In 2016, gold prices internationally are expected to fall below $1,000 per ounce.
