A Naked Short on Gold in a Country That Loves Glitter
India’s plan to wean its population off the yellow metal has left New Delhi nursing a $13 billion liability.
A naked short on gold in a country that loves glitter has left India nursing a $13 billion liability.
Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/BloombergBack in 2015, India’s finance ministry had a clever idea: Why not borrow cheaply by promising returns linked to bling? In the process, the officials would wean the country off a costly addiction. Indians would be able to satiate their world-beating appetite for gold by punting on something even more glittering.
That something, the mandarins reckoned, could only be a government-backed investment option that allowed investors to earn some cash while speculating on the price of their best-loved commodity — without actually having to buy it.