Gold on the rise as COVID-19 insecurities mount

Gold price is forecast to continue rising amidst pandemic fears

Vietnam, after several months of relative safety from the pandemic, has recently detected 13 new infections in Danang and the central province of Quang Ngai as of the evening of July 28. From noon July 28, the entire city has entered a new period of social distancing, once again interrupting all activities across the area.

As a result, anxiety across the country has been growing, driving up the gold price. Ending the morning session of July 28, the price of Saigon Jewelry Co., Ltd was VND55.75-57.25 million ($2,423-2,489) per tael (buy-sell), continuing strong rise over the past week by slightly increasing against the previous day's VND55.4-56.9 million ($2,408-2,473).

This rise was largely fuelled by the global impacts of the pandemic – and has received a strong push by Vietnam's own worries on July 26 when the latest COVID-19 infection cases were discovered in Danang. On that day, prices surged sharply to VND56 million ($2,434), up nearly VND1 million ($43.48) against the previous day and VND6 million ($260) against early last week.

Indeed, the past week has seen gold breaking records almost every day, by first reaching VND55 million ($2,391) on July 23, then VND56 million ($2,434) on July 24 – which was then broken on the 27th and then today as well. Thus, over the past five sessions, prices rose by about VND4-5 million ($174-217.40), from VND50.55-50.95 million ($2,197-2,215) (buy-sell) on July 20.

As the world is struggling to escape the clutches of the COVID-19 pandemic, global gold prices are also growing sharply these days to $1,923.2 per ounce (equaling 1.2 tael), exceeding the 2011 peak of $1,921.17.

Bloomberg forecasts gold to keep rising as the USD has been at rock-bottom for more than a year and US interest rates are actually negative.