A new study of Indian gold-buying practices showed its citizens carry gold in their households worth over $950 billion, representing 50 percent of the country's GDP.

Global research firm Macquarie found that Indian households own 18,000 metric tons of gold which is 11 percent of the global total.

Macquarie further noted that 7 percent to 8 percent of India's 329 billion households held their savings in gold in 2009-10.

India, the world's biggest buyer of gold, has an innate fascination with the yellow metal as attested by their culture and tradition. Its annual wedding and festival season alone force gold traders to stock up. This annual event has boosted prices every year since 2002 where some 10 million marriages take place in India every year on the average.

But lately, spurred tensions and anxieties brought by the global fiscal crisis affecting the more developed economies has led gold to evolv from a mere piece of adornment to an investment of greater value.

This "perceived wealth" has given most Indian households the confidence over their personal fiscal stability, according to Macquarie.

Indian gold consumption in volume terms, including jewelry and net retail investment, will continue to hold strong, regardless of the 64 percent rise in gold prices between January 2010 and September 2011,

Macquarie noted that for the first three quarters of 2011, there has been a 5 percent year-on-year increase alone, on the top of 72 percent year-on-year growth registered in 2010.

India will also remain the world's largest consumer of gold in tonnage terms, despite the 23 percent decline in gold demand in volume terms during the quarter ended September 2011.

Gold imports are India's third-largest merchandise imports after crude oil and capital goods. In 2010, 92 percent of the supply was met through net imports and the rest through recycled gold and other sources.