VietNamNet Bridge – The gold price soared dramatically yesterday August 8 – the day described as “crazy day”. The State Bank of Vietnam has announced it will grant quotas to import gold to ease the fever. The news has immediately pushed the dollar prices up.

On the morning of August 8, despite the heavy rains in Hanoi, a lot of people still queued up in front of gold shops to purchase gold. The market got chaotic when the price jumped to 44.22 million dong per tael. A lot of people, who sold gold at 42 million dong per tael, decided to purchase gold back immediately because they feared the gold prices would rise further.

Analysts said that the domestic price yesterday once reached the height which was 2 million dong per tael higher than the world’s price.

The same situation could also be seen in HCM City, Hai Phong and Nghe An, where people rushed to buy gold to store up in anticipation of the price skyrocketing.

The market situation became so serious that the State Bank of Vietnam had to release an announcement later of the day that it may consider importing gold and take necessary measures to stabilize the prices, stop speculation and protect people’s benefits.

The State Bank, on one hand, admitted that the domestic price has been increasing in accordance with the world’s price increases, but on the other hand, said that the domestic prices have been controlled by speculators who have deliberately pushed the prices up.

The gold price in the world market has jumped from 1494 dollars per ounce to 1716 dollars per ounce on August 8, due to the worries about the public debt crisis in the US and Europe. The worries have become bigger after Standard & Poor’s lower the credit ranking of the US. International experts believe that the speculation and the worries would make the gold price performance become unpredictable.

In the statement released on the afternoon of August 8, the State Bank has affirmed its consistent policy on stabilizing the Vietnam dong. With the stable dong/dollar exchange rate, the central bank believes that it is more profitable to keep dong than gold or dollars.

“It is really risky to purchase gold at this moment,” the State Bank has warned.

While the gold price skyrocketed, the dollar price, which has been stable for the last several months, also unexpectedly increased on August 8.

A lot of commercial banks raised the dollar purchase prices late yesterday afternoon by 164 dong per dollar in comparison with the opening prices. The dollar price on the black market also marched towards the 21,000 dong per dollar threshold.

Though the interbank exchange rate announced by the State Bank stayed at 20,608 dong per dollars, most commercial banks have raised the prices by hundreds of dong per dollar. Vietcombank, for example, has raised the prices by 100-140 dong per dollar to 20,680-20,800 dong per dollar (purchase and sale).

The dollar prices quoted by ACB on August 8 afternoon, also increased by 150-164 dong per dollar. Eximbank quoted the prices at 20,650-20,810 dong per dollar, while the gap between the purchase and the sale prices was high at 160 dong per dollar.

The owner of a shop on Nguyen Hue Road in HCM City said that an increasingly high demand has appeared on the market. “A lot of people have come to buy dollars. Some bought 500-700 dollars, while some bought tens of thousands of dollars,” he said.

Meanwhile, Nguyen Thanh Toai, Deputy General Director of ACB thinks that the gold price fluctuations have led to the adjustments of the dollar prices.

Source: VnExpress