After reaching a record high, the gold price in Burma dropped again yesterday amid a global market trend and burgeoning supply in the Rangoon market from the Burmese states. The price in Rangoon has fallen about 14,000 Kyats in the past 10 days.
The gold price in Burma reached a record high price of 662,000 Kyats per tical (about 16 grams) in the first week of this month and fell again to 648,000 Kyats per tical in last 10 days.
“The gold price also fell in the global market. Moreover, gold from states entered the Rangoon market, mostly from Moulmein, and Mandalay, pushing the price down,” a merchant in Burma’s main gold market on 29th Street in Pabedan Township, Rangoon, said.
The current gold price in global market is US$1,213 per troy ounce (1 troy ounce = 1.9 ticals)
In Moulmein it is 645,000 per tical and 647,000 per tical in Mandalay. The gold prices in the Burmese states are usually higher than that of the Rangoon market but states’ prices are lower than the Rangoon price yesterday, which spurred the Rangoon inflow.
On the London Gold Exchange at 6 p.m. (GMT), (or Rangoon, at 12:30 a.m. today), the gold price had edged further down to US$1206.49 per ounce.
The gold merchant from 29th Street said he was unaware of the reason for the price differences between the states and Rangoon and was unable to predict the trend for future prices.
A gold shop owner on Shwebonthar Street said trading had been brisk in the market this week as merchants bought back the gold that had arrived in Rangoon.
“The trading in both sales and purchases was good … Most of the transactions were in 10-tical gold biscuits and most of the buyers were from the Rangoon market, with very few from the states,” he said.
Despite the brisk trade in the former capital, transactions in Moulmein and Mandalay were listless, traders from those cities said. “Trading is sluggish in this monsoon season and at this high price”, a gold merchant at the four-storey Myaing Yadana market in Moulmein said.
As is usually the case, the US-dollar exchange rate has been rising as the gold price falls. The rate in the free market is 991 Kyats to the dollar (selling price), climbing slightly from 982 Kyats last month. The buying price is 985 Kyats.
The Foreign Exchange Certificate (FEC) exchange rate was 950 Kyats per unit last month and it fell to 935 Kyats yesterday. The FEC selling price is 935 Kyats and buying price is 930 Kyats.
The daily 24-carat gold price is fixed by the Gold Traders’ Association on Shwebonthar Street, Pabedan Township. The organisation was instituted in 2002 under the supervision of the Home Ministry. Gold traders need not visit the association offices but they must abide in their daily trading by the price it fixes.
