YGEA’s gold reference price rises following spot gold price rally

Spot gold price hit a high of US$2,086 per ounce, driving the Yangon Region Gold Entrepreneurs Association (YGEA) to raise the reference price to K3.28 million per tical (0.578 ounce, or 0.016 kilogramme).
The pure gold market price fluctuated upward to K3.72 million per tical in the grey market. There is a large gap of over K430,000 per tical between the YGEA’s reference price and the unofficial market’s rate. The YGEA switched to the Central Bank of Myanmar’s exchange rate (K2,900) for interbank transactions in calculating the reference price for pure gold. The US dollar is currently exchanged at approximately K3,500 in the grey market.
The US dollar exchange rate determines the gap between the domestic gold market value and YGEA’s reference gold price. When the dollar exchange rate surged to K4,000, the gold price peaked at K4 million per tical in late August 2023. — NN/EM