Customers buy gold at a shop in Hanoi. Vietnam’s economy experienced a sluggish growth in the first two quarters of this year, affecting local market sentiment and jewelry demand. (Photo: VNA)Hanoi (VNS/VNA) — In its recent report, the World GoldCouncil said demand for gold in Vietnam shrank 9% in the second quarter year onyear due to the economic difficulties.
Vietnamese purchased 12.8 tonnes of gold in the second quarter of2023, down 1.3 tonnes year-on-year, it added.
According to the council, Vietnam’s economy experienced sluggishgrowth in the first two quarters of this year, affecting local market sentimentand jewellery demand.
Local demand for gold bars and coins dropped by 5% year on yearfrom 9.6 tonnes in the second quarter last year to 9.1 tonnes in the sameperiod this year.
Meanwhile, demand for gold jewellery fell from 4.5 tonnes to 3.7tonnes.
Shaokai Fan, Head of Asia-Pacific (excluding China) and GlobalHead of Central Banks at the World Gold Council, said the Q2 downward trend inVietnam was like those in other markets in the ASEAN region.
The demand for gold bars and coins was also limited due to lowliquidity, affected by the downturn of the stock market and real estate, headded.
The General Statistics Office also reported the gold price indexin July 2023 decreased by 0.03% compared to the previous month. On average, inthe first seven months of 2023, the gold price index increased by only 1.06%, alow level compared to the same period in recent years.
Besides the economic difficulties, one of the policies affectingthe domestic gold market is Decree 24/2012/ND-CP which regulates the managementof gold business and the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV)'s exclusive right toimport gold bars. Since the decree took effect in 2012, the SBV hasn’t almostimported gold. The scarcity of supply is one of the reasons why the domesticgold market has been quite different from the global market.
After more than 10 years of being in effect, in a recent reportsent to the National Assembly, SBV’s Governor Nguyen Thi Hong said about thereview and assessment of the implementation of the decree./.
