In its simplest
terms, gold is a rare and valuable metal that has played perhaps
one of the most significant and historic roles in shaping up
modern economies and the modern financial/money system. It is
not an understatement to say that gold just so happens to be a
backbone of the modern financial systems for the economy of any
country in the world as gold backs the currency of every
country. Suffice to say that’s insurance enough for gold to have
a steadily increasing price no matter how much of it is
extracted and supply is increased in the market. Let’s explore
how the rare earth metal that makes the wheels of economies move
has moved throughout history.
MEASURING GOLD:
The unit of measure of gold used in Pakistan is Tola. One Tola
is approx. equivalent to 11.6638 grams or 56.842 karats. Usually
sold in raw form in biscuits and bricks, you will find a change
in price of gold depending on whether you buy raw bricks,
biscuits or finished pure jewelry. This is because each stage of
processing gold results in wastages and the more progressive
stage of gold you buy, the less wastage you have to go through
to make it into finished product which is why pure jewelry is
most expensive to purchase amongst gold items.
10 YEAR GOLD RATES TREND IN PAKISTAN:
The gold rates in Pakistan since 2017 have been on an increase
ever since. Since 24k gold is regarded as the most pure variant
of gold, we can analyze its market movement to accurately
reflect prices without external variations from other metals.
Over the period
of 10 years gold price in Pakistan started from Rs.62500 in 2012
and moved on to decrease to an all time low of 10 years in 2015
at Rs.44300 Per tola due to higher interest rates and better
alternative investment opportunities. However owing to declining
interest rates from 2016 onwards, gold regained some of its lost
value and started with a steady increase to Rs.50100 per tola in
2016 to Rs.67800 Per tola in 2018. Since then due to COVID
disrupting the economy and investment interests, recessions,
uncertainty and overall fear and panic pushed all investments
towards the historically protected, proven and safest option
which was gold, increasing its value two fold till 2020 to
Rs.113600 per tola. As of 2022, gold has increased to Rs 135300
Per tola but with a government that favors higher interest rates
and strong recovery of the investment sector from COVID albeit
being faced with high inflation, it may face a decrease in the
next year or so unless a surprisingly progressive economic
policy is formed.
Gold is a
commodity that has had a huge shift in trends during the past
few years. |