Forecasting gold prices in India: A time series analysis using Box Jenkins methodology

Authors

  • Sagnik Maity Research Scholar, University of Calcutta, West Bengal, India
  • Amit Majumder Principal, Maharaja Srischandra College, West Bengal, India

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.31181/jdaic10021042026m

Keywords:

gold price India, autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA), time series, forecasting, modelling

Abstract

In India, gold holds significant cultural and economic importance. It serves not only as a financial asset but also as a symbol of tradition and social value. This study forecasts gold prices in the Indian market using the Box–Jenkins (BJ) methodology and analyzes monthly data covering the period from 2004 to 2025. Based on the empirical analysis, the ARIMA (1,1,1) model was selected as the best-fitting model. The model demonstrated strong statistical validity and low forecasting errors, indicating a high level of predictive accuracy. The forecast further predicts a steady rise in gold prices from December 2024 to April 2025. This projected increase is consistent with historical trends and seasonal consumer demand. Consumer behavior plays a significant role in influencing gold prices. This is particularly evident in the increased demand during festival and wedding seasons. Gold is also widely preferred as a hedge against inflation and economic uncertainty, which further strengthens demand. In addition, investment patterns are evolving. A growing number of individuals are adopting gold-backed ETFs and digital gold platforms, reflecting the changing investment preferences of Indian households. Macroeconomic factors also significantly influence gold prices, including currency depreciation and global market uncertainties. Collectively, these factors explain the expected upward movement in gold prices in the Indian market.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Abdou, M., Shaltout, M., Godah, A., Sobh, K., Eid, Y., & Medhat, W. (2022). Gold Price Prediction using Sentiment Analysis. In Proceedings of the 20th International Conference on Language Engineering (ESOLEC) (pp. 41-44). Cairo: IEEE.

Abdullah, L. (2012). ARIMA Model for Gold Bullion Coin Selling Prices Forecasting. International Journal of Advances in Applied Sciences, 1(4), 153-158.

Agarwal, A. (2024, December 26). 2025 Market Outlook. The Economic Times. https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/markets/expert-view/2025-market-outlook-quick-commerce-growth-set-to-continue-but-stock-valuations-remain-a-concern-ashwini-agarwal/articleshow/116672828.cms?from=mdr, Accessed 26 June 2025.

Aljandali, A., & Tatahi, M. (2018). Economic and Financial Modelling with EViews: A Guide for Students and Professionals. Statistics and Econometrics for Finance. Cham: Springer.

Ayub, G., Ahmad, J., & Tayyab, A. Bin. (2026). Comparative study of LSTM, ARIMA, and Prophet models for stock market trend prediction: A case study on gold prices. Contemporary Journal of Social Science Review, 4(1), 14–25.

Baber, P., Baber, R., & Thomas, G. (2013). Factors affecting gold prices: a case study of India. In Proceedings of the National Conference on Evolving Paradigms in Manufacturing and Service Sectors (vol. 1). Madhya Pradesh, India

Bai, Y. (2024). Research on gold price prediction based on ARIMA model. Theoretical and Natural Science, 52, 41–48.

Banerjee, A. (2019). Forecasting of India VIX as a Measure of Sentiment. International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, 9(3), 268–276.

Baur, D. G., & Lucey, B. M. (2010). Is gold a hedge or a safe haven? An analysis of stocks, bonds and gold. Financial Review, 45(2), 217–229.

Baur, D. G., & McDermott, T. K. (2010). Is gold a safe haven? International evidence. Journal of Banking & Finance, 34(8), 1886–1898.

Bhattacharya, R. (2025). Seasonal Dynamics in Gold Price Forecasting: A Comparative Analysis of ARIMA and SARIMA Models for Retail Gold Prices - Evidence from daily data, 2014–2025. International Journal of Technology and Applied Science, 16(10), 1127.

Bhaumik, S. K. (2015). Principles of Econometrics: A Modern Approach Using EViews. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Box, G. E. P., & Jenkins, G. M. (1976). Time series analysis: Forecasting and control. 2nd ed. San Francisco: Holden-Day.

Bunnag, T. (2024). The Importance of Gold’s Effect on Investment and Predicting the World Gold Price Using the ARIMA and ARIMA-GARCH Model. Ekonomikalia Journal of Economics, 2(1), 38–52.

Deepak, J. P. L., Subramanian, Y. R., Lalitha, J. J., & Vidhya, K. (2024). Optimum Level of Currency Reserves: Investigation and Forecasting of Indian Rupee Using ARIMA Model. Journal of Business Cycle Research, 20(1), 137-150.

Deepika, M. G., Nambiar, G., & Rajkumar, M. (2012). Forecasting price and analyzing factors influencing the price of gold using ARIMA model and multiple regression analysis. International Journal of Research in Management, Economics and Commerce, 2(11), 548–563.

Garg, S. (2021). A study of factors influencing investor behaviour towards gold as an investment avenue with factor analysis. Materials Today: Proceedings, 37, 2587–2590.

Guha, B., & Bandyopadhyay, G. (2016). Gold price forecasting using ARIMA model. Journal of Advanced Management Science, 4(2), 117-121.

Hai, T. T. M., & Vu, M. A. (2025). Forecasting Gold Price Trends in Vietnam in the Fourth Quarter of 2025 Using the Arima Model. Journal of Economics. Journal of Economics, Finance and Management Studies, 8(9), 6334–6339.

Hall, R. E. (2005). Controlling the price level. American Journal of Economics and Sociology, 64(1), 93–112.

Jayanthi, M., Malathy, S., & Radhulya, T. (2013). A study on performance of Gold ETF Companies in India. International Research Journal of Business and Management, 6, 97–102.

Kakkar, S., & Chitrao, P. V. (2020). Analysis of purchase behaviour in ornamental gold industry in India. Journal of Xidian University, 14(8), 1376 – 1394.

Kakkar, S., & Chitrao, P. V. (2023). Significance of Gold in Indian culture. The Journal of Contemporary Issues in Business and Government, 29(2), 78–84.

Kannan, R., & Dhal, S. (2008). India’s demand for gold: some issues for economic development and macroeconomic policy. Indian Journal of Economics and Business, 7(1), 107-128.

Kristjanpoller, W., & Minutolo, M. C. (2015). Gold price volatility: A forecasting approach using the Artificial Neural Network–GARCH model. Expert Systems with Applications, 42(20), 7245–7251.

Kumar, J., Rao, T., Srivastava, S. (2012). Economics of Gold Price Movement-Forecasting Analysis Using Macro-economic, Investor Fear and Investor Behavior Features. In: Srinivasa, S., & Bhatnagar, V. (eds) Big Data Analytics. BDA 2012. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, (vol. 7678) (pp. 111-121). Berlin: Springer.

Makala, D., & Li, Z. (2021). Prediction of gold price with ARIMA and SVM. Journal of Physics: Conference Series, 1767, 012022.

Mohammed, R. (2026). Gold price prediction based on ARIMA and LSTM neural network. Journal of Economics and Sustainable Development, 9(1), 134-150.

Nallamothu, S., Kottapalli, R., & Perumal, A. (2023). Forecasting gold prices in India using an ARIMA model. AIP Conference Proceedings, 2707(1), 040012.

Parimi, S. (2018). Factor influencing the gold prices: An empirical investigation in the Indian context. Theoretical Economics Letters, 8(15), 3444–3456.

Pierce, D. A. (1979). R2 measures for time series. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 74(368), 901–910.

Ping, P. Y., Miswan, N. H., & Ahmad, M. H. (2013). Forecasting Malaysian gold using GARCH model. Applied Mathematical Sciences, 7(57–60), 2879–2884.

Pujiarini, E. H., & Damayanti, A. (2025). Hybrid ARIMA-LSTM Model for Gold Price Forecasting at Pegadaian. ZERO: Jurnal Sains, Matematika Dan Terapan, 9(3), 1098–1108.

Rao, V. (2001). Celebrations as social investments: Festival expenditures, unit price variation and social status in rural India. Journal of Development Studies, 38(1), 71–97.

Shaikh, I., & Vallabh, P. (2022). Monetary policy uncertainty and gold price in India: Evidence from Reserve Bank of India’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) review. Resources Policy, 76, 102642.

Shankar, C. I., & Shukla, S. (2017). A study of gold jewellery market in India. International Journal of Academic Research and Development, 2(5), 238–241.

Sharma, R. K. (2016). Forecasting Gold price with Box Jenkins Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average Method. Journal of International Economics, 7(1), 32-61.

Singh, P. (2013). Depreciation of rupee in indian economy: An analysis. International Journal of Innovations in Engineering and Technology, 2(4), 332-344.

Tripathy, N. (2017). Forecasting Gold Price with Auto Regressive Integrated Moving Average Model. International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, 7(4), 324-329.

Vidhyapriya, P., & Mohanasundari, M. (2014). A Study on the Performance of Gold ETF in India. Indian Journal of Applied Research, 4(8), 414–417.

Wang, N., Ma, Y., He, Z., Che, A., Huang, Y., & Xu, J. (2014). The impact of consumer price forecasting behaviour on the bullwhip effect. International Journal of Production Research, 52(22), 6642–6663.

Yang, X. (2019). The Prediction of Gold Price Using ARIMA Model. In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Social Science, Public Health and Education (SSPHE 2018). Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research (vol. 19) (pp. 273-276). Atlantis Press.

Ye, J., Zhao, K., Wang, C.-w., & Liu, W.-y. (2014). Analysis and Forecasts of Gold Price Based on the ARFIMA-GARCH Model. Journal of Qingdao University (Natural Science Edition), (4), 10-14.

Zheng, H. (2025). Analysis of International Gold Prices Using ARIMA, SVR with Linear Regression. Journal of Advanced Management Science, 13(1), 15-21.

Published

21.04.2026

How to Cite

Maity, S., & Majumder, A. (2026). Forecasting gold prices in India: A time series analysis using Box Jenkins methodology. Journal of Decision Analytics and Intelligent Computing, 6(1), 14–31. https://doi.org/10.31181/jdaic10021042026m