Jewellery sales in Italy, a major European market, will fall this year as soaring precious metal prices, weak economy and political uncertainty sap consumer demand, senior industry officials said on Sunday. Italy has been struggling to push through a 54 billion euro ($74 billion) package of austerity measures aimed at balancing the budget by 2013 and averting a debt crisis.
In the meantime, gold prices, which have gained about 30 percent this year, hit record highs. "With all these negative news, consumers obviously postpone jewellery purchases until better times. But when they will arrive?" Giuseppe Aquilino, chairman of Italy's federation of jewellery retailers, told Reuters in an interview.
Jewellery demand is one of the main drivers on precious metal markets. Italy sells about 70 percent of its jewellery output abroad. Export sales were expected to fall about 10 percent in volume this year.
Italian jewellery sales on the domestic market fell about 20 percent in the first six months, with even sharper falls in plain gold jewellery sales, Aquilino said.
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