The price of SJC gold bars in Vietnam jumped by just over VND 3 million on Thursday morning reaching VND 80 million per tael, up from 76.98 million the day before. The world gold price on Thursday for comparison was about VND 75.67 million power tael.
This is in line with the market moving to its own beat, often much higher than the world gold price, on the back of regulations that severely limit the importation of gold yet a culture that sees gold as an important store of wealth. This, coupled with challenging economic conditions, has fueled demand with the State Bank, reluctant to allow the import of more gold in the event it might put greater pressure on the local currency. Instead it has taken to selling gold from its own reserves to deflate the gold bar price.
State Bank gold bars were previously being sold through four majority state-owned banks, at well below market price, with huge queues of customers looking to buy up the cheap State Bank gold. This has since moved online and now that demand is much less visible. That said, this latest price jump could indicate that demand is still very real and present.