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.
