DUBAI, Aug 9: Dubai’s second-quarter gold imports fell 2.1 per cent to 143 tons, compared with a year ago, and exports plummeted 15.8 per cent to 64 tons, figures from the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC) showed on Saturday.

The Gulf Arab emirate’s total gold imports for the first half of 2008 were down 4.7 per cent, at 265 tons. Total exports during the same period rose 26.1 per cent to 179 tons, according to figures in a DMCC statement.

Gold trade through Dubai reached $6.01 billion in the first quarter of the year, up 26.3 per cent from the same period in 2007, while in the first half of the year, trade in the precious metal surged 48 per cent to $13.07 billion from the same period a year earlier, the DMCC said.

Demand for gold has been resilient to global market conditions, Ian MacDonald, DMCC’s executive director for gold and precious metals, said in the statement.

Spot gold powered to a record of $1,030.80 an ounce on March 17 on record-high crude oil, fears of inflation and expectations of more rate cuts in the US, making the metal more attractive as an alternative investment.

It traded around $855 an ounce in Europe on Friday. Gold is seen as a safe-haven metal and as a hedge against inflation. The metal is also influenced by oil, currency moves, and generally trades in the opposite direction to the dollar.

Dubai is a long-established market for gold bullion andwholesale and retail jewellery, where the trade is fuelled by strong demand from the Arab world and India.—Reuters