HANOI : Vietnam’s central bank said on Friday it “has enough recourses and determination” to stabilise the domestic gold market, amid a sharp rise in local gold prices this year.
“The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) is simultaneously implementing measures to stabilise the market, and has obtained initial objectives,” it said in a statement.
Gold is a popular investment choice and a wealth preservation tool in Vietnam, where the central bank tightly controls the imports of the metal. The latest import batch was more than a decade ago.
Domestic selling gold prices rose 11.5 per cent in the first four months of this year, and at the end of May remained 20 per cent higher than international prices.
To cool down domestic prices and narrow the gap, the SBV held six gold auctions from April 23 to May 23, selling 1.8 tons of the metal.
On Monday, the SBV started selling gold to the market through four state-owned banks.
The central bank on Friday set its gold price at 75.98 million dong ($2,988.75) per tael, compared with a recent peak in domestic market price of around 90 million dong in mid-May. A tael is equivalent to 37.5 grams, or 1.21 troy ounces.
The central bank in its Friday statement brushed off information on social media that it was short of gold for sale as “fake news”.
($1 = 25,422 dong)
