China is most likely to snatch the world's largest gold consumer title from India this 2013, according to the World Gold Council on Thursday.

The industry body said China's demand for the safe haven yellow metal gold will remain at 1,000 tonnes in 2013, while India's was forecast to drop to 900 tonnes from the previous 1,000 tonnes, spurred by tightening measures.

"The administrative measures that the Indian government has imposed on the market have proven to be quite effective and imports have slowed down," Albert Cheng, the WGC's managing director for the Far East told Reuters.

"It would be difficult to get to 1,000 tonnes," he said.

"If not for administrative measures, India would have seen growth like China."

In the third quarter of 2013, India's gold demand hit only 714.7 tonnes, compared to China's mainland China's 779.6 tonnes, WGC's third-quarter report said.

In the previous July-September period, India's gold consumption reached only 148.2 tonnes, a 32 per cent decrease from a year ago.

Demand for jewelry, bullion and coin sectors posted favourable increases from a year ago. Technology demand likewise remain good.

"The growth in jewelry, bullion and coins in particular, demonstrates the unique diversity of gold demand, as different sectors increase in prominence at different points in the global economic cycle," Marcus Grubb, managing director with the investment department of the WGC, said.

"That is clear evidence of the ebb and flow of what is an extremely liquid market."

China's appetite for the jewellery, bars and coins has jumped nearly 40 per cent this year

For the straight 11 years, central banks were net buyers of gold. Collectively they bought a total of 93 tonnes in the July-September period. Meanwhile, demand from the technology sector remained stable at 103 tonnes, the WGC report said.

Experts strongly believed the Chinese New Year at the end of January will further boost the fourth quarter demand.