CAIRO, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) — Egypt concluded the third edition of the Nebu Expo for Gold & Jewelry on Tuesday amid soaring gold prices and growing demand, while the country faces a shortage of US dollars, currency devaluation and high inflation.
Ehab Wassef, head of the gold industry department at the Federation of Egyptian Industries, said gold prices have risen globally to more than $2,000 per ounce, which has been reflected in prices in Egypt.
“We recently had a great demand for gold among Egyptian citizens and companies for saving and investment,” Wassef told Xinhua, citing a recent report by the World Gold Council that “Egyptians bought about 46.3 tons of gold in the first nine months of 2023.”
During the expo, more than 150 companies exhibited gold products, coins and bars, a variety of jewelry products, and related machinery and tools.
Tarek Al-Tarouty, CEO of New Egypt Gold, one of the largest exhibitors, said that gold has proven to be a “safe haven” and a “globally recognized currency” amid economic challenges and crises.
He said that the current “mania” for buying gold in Egypt, especially gold bars and coins, is mainly due to the rising exchange rate of the dollar against the Egyptian pound.
The purchase price of 24-carat gold reached 3,211 Egyptian pounds (about 103 U.S. dollars) per gram as of Tuesday, up from 1,686 pounds in the same period last year, while the price of 21-carat gold reached 2,810 pounds per gram, up from 1,475 pounds at the end of November last year.
After a series of devaluations of the local currency to curb Egypt’s soaring inflation, the country’s currency has lost about half of its value over the past year.
The dollar exchange rate hit a record high in November, reaching 50 Egyptian pounds on the parallel market, although the official exchange rate is 30.9 pounds per dollar, compared to about 24.5 pounds in late November 2022 and 18.3 pounds in late March 2022.
Fady Milad Raouf, the owner of Minous Gold, said the rise in gold prices in Egypt is linked to the high dollar exchange rate. “If the dollar exchange rate stabilizes, gold prices will stabilize,” he said.
Although the rising gold prices have affected the market, Raouf said the Nebu exhibition was an opportunity to showcase his company’s new products and interact with traders.
“The majority of gold buyers currently buy for saving, especially gold bars and coins, but now some of them tend to buy handcrafted gold for both decoration and saving at the same time,” Raouf told Xinhua.
