Fuel price hike was not the only dampener for Indian households in recent days. The government's attempt to curb gold buying was an equal disappointment for many. The move to raise import duty on gold was essentially meant to ease off the pressure on current account deficit. Of late the yellow metal was seen as the single biggest culprit for India's deficit problem. But it seems Indian households are not the only ones disappointed with such a move. Our counterparts in Vietnam face a similar predicament. Thanks to gold's inflation hedging properties and importance in social functions, the metal has increasingly found favour. More importantly lack of trust in equities and low interest rates has made other investments relatively unattractive. Gold on the other hand has had an impressive run in recent times. In fact in the past 10 years investments in gold have outperformed investment in equities. The 30 year story of gold and Sensex is however skewed towards the latter. Thus try as they might, governments in India and Vietnam will not be able to wean investors off gold. That is until other asset classes like equities and debt find more favour.