The free market is also in short supply.

On June 17, we stopped by a gold shop in Tan Dinh market area (District 1, Ho Chi Minh City) and asked to buy SJC gold bars and plain gold rings. The sales staff said that plain gold rings cost 76 million VND/tael, while SJC gold bars were only available in 1-chi size, priced at 8.2 million VND/chi (82 million VND/tael), the 1-chi size was no longer available.

Gold price 2 appeared

We continued to go to branches of Phu Nhuan Jewelry Company (PNJ) and branches of Vietnam Export Import Bank (Eximbank) in District 3 and Thu Duc City (HCMC) but the transaction staff also reported that there were no more SJC gold bars.

Previously, on June 16, we went to gold shops in Cau Market area (District 12, Ho Chi Minh City) to ask to buy SJC gold bars and received head shakes because these shops did not have a license to trade SJC gold bars issued by the State Bank.

"A few months ago I bought SJC gold here, why is it not for sale today?" - when we asked, the seller did not answer the question but appeared annoyed: "If you want to buy, go to the places licensed by the state to trade in SJC gold bars, there is."

People still gather in large numbers in front of SJC Company headquarters every day to get a number to buy gold. Photo: LAM GIANG

Contacting a gold shop owner in the Go Vap market area (HCMC), this person said that currently buying and selling SJC gold bars is not simple. Gold shops only dare to buy and sell in small quantities to familiar customers, not daring to transact with strangers for fear of being fined. Because according to regulations, buying and selling SJC gold bars must be licensed by the authorities.

If the gold shop is discovered to be trading illegally, its business license may be revoked. However, the owner of this gold shop whispered: "When the shop buys SJC gold bars from regular customers, I will call you to come and trade at the price announced by SJC Company."

The director of a gold company in Ho Chi Minh City said that currently no gold shop dares to publicly post the price list of SJC gold bars, but the market still has transactions on a "private route". Because the demand for buying SJC gold bars from people is still very large, while ordering online or buying directly at banks and SJC companies is too difficult.

According to forums and social networks, some gold companies still announce the transaction price of SJC gold bars to regular customers. Accordingly, the current common price is 80.1 million VND/tael for buying and 81.5 million VND/tael for selling, which is 4-5 million VND/tael higher than the "stable" price.

"People lining up to buy gold at SJC Company, a state-owned commercial bank, at VND76.98 million/tael can resell it to relatives or friends to make a profit. It is very difficult to control these actual needs. Therefore, to reduce the situation of two-price gold, market measures are needed," said the director of this gold company.

Expanding gold bar sales network

Regarding the current situation of two gold prices in the market, gold expert Nguyen Ngoc Trong proposed to increase the supply of SJC gold bars by expanding the gold sales network to other companies and commercial banks.

Specifically, it is necessary to expand the sales system so that people in many regions, provinces and cities can buy gold bars, instead of flocking to the two big cities of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Otherwise, it will create scarcity and stimulate people's demand for gold.

"Commercial banks with large networks of branches and transaction offices can expand their gold bar sales points to provinces and cities. The immediate solution is to allow online gold purchase registration as the four state-owned banks are doing. Customers can easily place orders, close the price, transfer money and after a few days will come to the point of sale to receive gold. When the distribution network is large enough, people's demand for gold will gradually decrease," said Mr. Trong.

An expert said that when there are still many people who want to buy gold bars but cannot access them because the current gold selling network is not large, it is difficult to avoid the situation of two-price gold and "black market" prices like the story of free USD recently.

In fact, to reduce pressure on gold sales points, since June 17, all four state-owned commercial banks have allowed customers to register to buy gold online instead of having to jostle and queue like in previous days.

The leader of a state-owned commercial bank assessed that the State Bank's solution of selling gold bars directly to people through the state-owned commercial bank system and SJC Company has contributed to cooling down the price of gold bars.

"The most obvious effect is that the price of SJC gold bars has decreased sharply in recent days and narrowed the gap with the world to about 4-6 million VND/tael. This is a short-term solution and may have to be implemented for a while longer until Decree 24/2012/ND-CP on gold market management is amended. In my opinion, this decree can be amended in the direction of removing the monopoly of SJC gold bars and the monopoly of gold bar brands" - said the leader of this bank.

Dr. Nguyen Duc Do, Deputy Director of the Institute of Economics and Finance, said that gold is a traditional investment channel for people besides other familiar channels such as real estate, savings... Therefore, in order for people to reduce investment in gold and turn gold into a resource for socio-economic development, the fundamental solution is that the state needs to encourage the development of other investment channels such as stocks, bonds... At the same time, it must continue to maintain macroeconomic stability so that people can confidently invest their money.

Professor Tran Tho Dat, member of the National Financial and Monetary Policy Advisory Council, said that in the context of economic fluctuations, gold can be a safe haven. However, from an investment perspective, gold is not a good place to make a profit compared to other channels, gold is risky and the government does not encourage people to hoard gold.

"If people continue to increase their gold purchases, resources will remain stagnant, which is not beneficial to the economy. In the long term, the Government needs to have solutions to make other investment channels more attractive so that people have alternative options and reduce their focus on gold," said Mr. Dat.

(*) See Lao Dong Newspaper from issue dated June 17

Continue to fight against "goldenization"

On June 17, the State Bank of Vietnam said it would continue to implement a roadmap to narrow and control the gap between domestic SJC gold bar prices and world prices at an appropriate level. The goal is to combat the "goldenization" of the economy as required by the Government.

According to the leader of the State Bank, changing people's long-standing habits and customs of storing gold is not easy, but the fight against the "goldenization" of the economy is urgent.

Source: https://nld.com.vn/gian-nan-mua-vang-binh-on-thi-truong-tu-do-cung-khan-hang-196240617212020531.htm