The Dubai Shopping Festival (DSF), which is currently under way, is expected to boost gold sales in the city by almost 50 per cent, after a relatively low period. Customers are spoilt for choice with a huge range of gold jewellery, said a report.

"Gold sales in the Middle East accelerated and shot up during December as there were three very important events, Christmas and Eid Al Adha followed by New Year.

Also due to DSF, gold sales were prolonged thereby sustaining strong demand for the yellow metal particularly in the premium-end segment during the year-end," said Moaz Barakat, managing director, World Gold Council, Middle East, Turkey and Pakistan.

According to the Gold and Jewellery Group's statistics, sales of DSF 2007 gold coupons have increased many folds. The total number of coupons sold till date are 387,487 compared to 291,000 in 2005.

The average gold coupon collection till date has already reached 20,394.05 compared to 15,315.79 in 2005. The group expects the coupon collection to hit the 917,732.37 mark compared to 689,210.53 last year.