Following the spot gold price rally, the Yangon Gold Entrepreneurs Association (YGEA) set the pure gold price higher to K3.797 million per tical (0.578 ounce or 0.016 kilogramme).
The spot gold price is US$2,120 at present.
Yet, the market value of the pure gold hit K3.98 million per tical. There is a price difference of over K180,000 per tical between the YGEA’s set price and the unofficial market price.
YGEA calculated the price depending on the Central Bank of Myanmar’s interbank reference exchange rate, with some addition, in spite of the US dollar gain in the unofficial forex market, causing the price gap to widen to K400,000-500,000 per tical.
Following the CBM’s liberalization for authorized dealers for online forex trading on 5 December 2023, the gap between the YGEA’s reference price and the actual market value narrowed. The Kyat-US Dollar exchange rate is K3,610 at present.
The US dollar exchange rate, therefore, weighs on the gap between the domestic gold market value and YGEA’s reference gold price.
The soaring dollar exchanging up to K4,000 drove the gold price up to a record high of K4 million per tical in late August 2023.
The YGEA also requested its members on 24 January to deal in gold with immediate payment and cooperate to stabilize the gold price. — NN/EM
