HANOI: While exports of gold jewelry to the US, Belgium, France and Australia remain stable, exports to Switzerland have unexpectedly soared by 2,300 percent this year. A report from the General Department of Customs (GDC) showed that the export turnover of jewelry gold and gold products to Switzerland in the first nine months of the year reached $324.7 million, a sharp increase of 2,381 percent compared with the same period last year ($13 million in the first nine months of 2015).
Nguyen The Hung from the Vietnam Gold Business Association noted that since the government’s decree No 24 was released, the domestic gold price had never been lower than the world price until 2016. In the months from March to July, the domestic price was VND300,000-500,000 per tael lower than the world price. On days just after Brexit was announced, the price gap widened to VND1 million.
Therefore, it is understandable why businesses sped up exports to make profit. This also explains why businesses have not exported gold. Hung thinks that Switzerland might be importing more jewelry from Vietnam to refine gold and make 99.99 percent bullion gold for re-export to the international market.
