Jewellery sales in Italy fell sharply in 2011 and are expected to remain depressed in 2012 as the debt crisis and the government's austerity measures hit consumer demand, senior industry officials said on Sunday.
"There was a strong fall in sales in September. October and November were a disaster and in December the government measures have stopped any will to spend money, to make any gift," Gianfranco Malagoli, deputy chairman of the Italian federation of jewellery wholesale buyers and distributors Fedora, told Reuters. "There was a 15-20 percent fall in volumes of gold jewellery sales in 2011. The outlook for 2012 is not great because of the economic situation," Malagoli said in an interview at an international jewellery fair in northern Italy.
In the third quarter alone gold jewellery sales in Italy dropped 22 percent to 4.2 tonnes, according to the industry-funded World Gold Council. Overall jewellery sales in Italy fell by 10-15 percent last year by value and even more by volume as precious metal prices remained high, Giuseppe Aquilino, chairman of Italy's federation of jewellery retailers Federdettaglianti Orafi, told Reuters separately at the fair.