The World Gold Council’s latest Gold Demand Trends Report revealed that global annual demand has reached 4,021 tonnes for the full year in 2021.

When the domestic gold market is in short supply but gold cannot be imported through official channels, there is a risk of smuggling.

The price of gold in local and global markets continued to suffer a sharp decrease on August 12 following an announcement on Russia's progress in developing a novel coronavirus vaccine.

The opening trading session of August 11 saw the price of domestic gold endure a sharp fall and is now hovering around VND56 million per tael following a series of consecutive increases over the past few days.

Masses of people nationwide have been flocking to jewellery shops in order to sell the precious metal to cash in on the increasing trend of gold prices reaching an all-time high of VND62 million per tael.

Prices of the yellow metal soared a new record reaching VND62million(US$2,681) per tatel or 1.2 ounce in Vietnam on Thursday after the State Bank of Viet Nam (SBV) confirmed to have solutions and sufficient resources to stabilise the market.

The recent surge of gold prices may cause risks for individual buyers, experts and analysts have warned.