UAE gold jewellery sales lowest in 2 years on high prices: World Gold Council

Dubai: Gold jewellery sales in the UAE have dropped to their lowest levels in more than two years as successive record price increased dented the appetite of shoppers. In the April to end June phase, overall jewellery sales slipped to 7.7 tonnes, which is 16% lower than a year ago.

For most of 2023 and 2024, UAE quarterly jewellery sales have been around 9-10 tonnes, according to latest data from World Gold Council. In Q1-2025, UAE-wide jewellery sales came to 7.9 tonnes.

Saudi Arabia too has seen gold jewellery demand drop significantly, to 11.2 tonnes from 14.6 tonnes. (In Q1-2025, Saudi jewellery demand had actually risen even with high gold prices. It totaled 14.6 tonnes.)

What the data show is that even steep discounts on jewellery and cuts to making charges are not actually helping sustain sales volumes.

“It’s all about high gold prices – the UAE is perhaps a bit more impacted because of the reliance on sales to tourists as well as to resident shoppers,” said Andrew Naylor, Head of Public Policy at World Gold Council.

“Saudi Arabia too has seen a drop in jewellery demand, and that’s because the gold jewellery buying tends to ‘mass retail’.”  

Before the latest WGC report came out, UAE's leading gold retailers had been telling the market about the steep fall in demand at their outlets. "Shoppers were responding only to specific price cuts or discounts," said a jeweller. "Even newer collections were not working."

Even gold coins see demand drop

What’s surprising is that record gold prices have also eaten into the demand for gold coins as investments during the second quarter of 2025. This is a reversal from the recent past, when investments in gold coins and bars surged, while that for jewellery dropped.

Again, according to Naylor, this is part of a global trend. “As with jewellery demand, that for gold coins felt the full impact of high prices. Even coins of smaller sizes went out of the reach of the ‘mass affluent’ investor.

“The one category that’s still growing is gold bars – and in the UAE, the really high networth investors kept buying. Or there were investors buying 'fractionally' into gold bars.” (The demand spike for gold bars that WGC is tracking also includes those made through digital platforms.)

More to follow...