Jewellery, precious metals sales up 37.4 yoy in March
Households seek potential safe haven, inflation hedge
Chinese families record 9.9 trln yuan of savings in Q1

SHANGHAISINGAPORE, April 18 Reuters Violet Zhu, a Shanghaibased electronic components exporter, has been attending jewellery auctions and chatting on social media forums on the subject this year, looking to invest in rubies and diamonds.

I don39;t have the brain for stock investments, and I am waiting to redeem mutual fund products once they break even. But in the meantime, I have been continuously buying gems, says Zhu.

Zhu says she is searching for oddlyshaped rubies of higher grades, hoping the value of those little gems will surge with time. She is not alone.

Jewellery and precious metals consumption in China soared 37.4 in March from a year earlier underpinning a 13.6 jump for the quarter and topping the list of items that stoked a surge in firstquarter retail sales, official data showed on Tuesday.

China39;s economy grew at a fasterthanexpected pace in the first quarter, with retail sales rising 10.6, beating forecasts for a 7.4 increase by a large margin.

The interest in precious metals is a worrying indicator that China39;s efforts to revive its economy via domestic spending, after years of strict COVID curbs, may not be working.

Highend consumption gives us a bit of a surprise but overall the weak recovery story remains intact, said Marco Sun, chief financial analyst at MUFG Bank China….