Reasons why many people are lining up to buy gold
The situation of people lining up to buy gold is becoming a common phenomenon in many big cities. According to Lao Dong Newspaper reporters, many people accept waiting for hours to buy gold, despite the continuous escalation of domestic prices, at times exceeding the threshold of 122 million VND/tael.
Not only gold bars but also plain round gold rings have become scarce, causing demand to increase sharply.
Experts say that the rush to buy gold not only reflects crowd psychology but also shows prolonged inadequacies in the gold market management policy. In particular, imbalance between supply and demand is considered the core cause of this abnormality.
Talking to Lao Dong Newspaper reporter, Dr. Nguyen Tri Hieu - an economic expert - said: "It can be said that the main reason is the current shortage of gold supply, while demand is stimulated by many factors, from world gold prices to crowd psychology. People also feel that business this year is difficult due to issues such as global tariffs, so the trend of looking for gold as a safe haven channel is very strong".
According to Mr. Hieu, people rushing to buy gold is not simply an outbreak act but reflects the need to store assets for a purpose. Not everyone knows how to invest in stocks or real estate. For many, gold is the most accessible channel. Holding a gold bar in hand, they feel secure because they know how much assets they are holding, he analyzed.
Even for many people, gold is considered a more secure investment channel for depositing money in banks in the context of currently unattractive interest rates. Mr. Hieu commented: Vietnamese people have a "safe and secure" mentality, prioritizing holding tangible assets. Gold is not only a store of value, but also an insurance asset that can be used when sick, married or left for children and grandchildren.
Notably, the expert warned that if policies are not adjusted soon, domestic gold prices may continue to be pushed to unprecedented levels: I think that in the short term, gold prices may reach the mark of 125 million VND/tael. The specific time is unknown, but the probability of reaching this level within 90 days of US President Donald Trump's announcement of reviewing global tax policies is about 60%.
Need to quickly adjust policies on supply
Faced with the above situation, Dr. Nguyen Tri Hieu proposed to quickly adjust the policy on supply. The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) should withdraw its role as the sole gold importer. Decree 24 also needs to be amended in the direction of allowing qualified enterprises to directly import gold, but must be under the coordination and orientation of the State Bank" - he said.
According to him, only when the market has more supply will gold prices have the opportunity to stabilize again. At the same time, allocating import targets and strictly managing foreign currency flows will help reduce exchange rate pressure and prevent speculation and hoarding in the gold market.
Sharing the same view, Professor. Tran Tho Dat, Chairman of the Science and Training Council at the National Economics University, said that if Decree 24 is amended, breaking the monopoly on gold, the gold market in Vietnam will operate closer to the world market.
"The SBV manages the gold market quite closely. The SBV should only perform administrative management and planning, policies, regulating and reserves of gold exchange in existing ordinances such as foreign exchange ordinance, the Law on the SBV, the Law on Credit institutions. The State Bank should not participate in production and business and regulate the gold market and administrative measures, not directly involved in the gold trading process, to return the gold trading market."
Previously, at the plenary meeting of the National Financial and Monetary Policy Advisory Council on March 28, 2024, experts and members of the Council proposed to remove the monopoly on SJC gold bars.
Here, economic experts and members of the Decree 24 2012 Appraisal Council completed the mission of "anti-golding", and agreed to propose removing the state monopoly mechanism for the production of SJC gold bars, and recommended licensing a number of qualified enterprises to participate in production.
