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Sparkle vanishes from jewellery market
The global financial turmoil will likely cool off spending on jewellery and other luxury items not just in Dubai, but across the globe this year because people are growing more cautious and are holding on to their money, international jewellery manufacturers and traders said .
- By Cleofe Maceda, Staff Reporter
- Published: 23:28 October 13, 2008
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Dubai: The global financial turmoil will likely cool off spending on jewellery and other luxury items not just in Dubai, but across the globe this year because people are growing more cautious and are holding on to their money, international jewellery manufacturers and traders said .
Top industry players from as far as Hong Kong, the United States, Thailand and India, who converged in Dubai for the International Gem Show on Monday, shared the same forecast: their businesses are going to take a beating from the global economic downturn.
Bookings and sales of luxury pieces are expected to slacken, but traders are hopeful they would be able to touch base with the affluent jewellery market in the GCC region and build partnerships with local and foreign buyers.
"People keep saying they're isolated. That's not true. The falling US financial market will affect the whole world. Even the wealth from Middle East countries have gone down. People who thought they were worth so much before are now worth 60 per cent of that. Their desire to spend is gone. There's a global fear cycle," Manish Sacheti, director of India-based Gehna Collections, told Gulf News.
Sacheti travelled to Dubai to showcase his company's jewellery pieces at the trade fair hosted by the International Coloured Gemstone Association (ICA).
Sacheti said the least they could do now is hope that people would invest their money in precious jewellery as a money-saving strategy, and that they would be able to develop relationships with other traders, so they "would be better prepared by the time things get better."
"So, on one side of the coin, people don't want to invest in financial products and all. On the other side of the coin, which might be positive for us, people might invest in physical assets like gold, diamond or jewellery," Sacheti added.
Subhash Punglia, director of Gem Stones, another exhibitor from Thailand, said the impact of the falling markets in the US was farthest in his mind when he was still preparing for his trip to Dubai weeks ago.
"We have low expectations for this year because of the falling economy in the US," Punglia said.
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