Earlier this week, India, the world’s second-largest gold market, raised import duties on gold and silver. This comes only days after Prime Minister Modi asked Indians to stop buying gold for a year, in an effort to protect the rupee and conserve foreign exchange.
First, the government asked citizens not to buy gold, as Jan Skoyles covered in her video earlier this week. Then it made gold and silver more expensive to buy, by placing import duties on them.
It seems to me, that that is a curious way of reassuring people that everything is under control.
In thiss video, we look at why this matters far beyond India. Because, of course, this isn’t just a story about jewellery, tariffs or trade data. It is about what happens when governments become uncomfortable with citizens moving savings into physical assets outside the banking system.
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