In Vietnam, savers sitting on 400-tonne gold hoard rejoice at price boom
But the precious metal’s rally has also made wedding gifts unaffordable for many and upended an informal gold mortgage system
From his newly built three-storey home outside Hanoi, Trinh Tat Thang has watched the surging global gold price with mounting dread.
The Vietnamese have a long tradition of holding their wealth in gold, and a parallel practice of borrowing the asset from relatives to build homes rather than cash from a bank.
But the debt must be repaid in gold.
Family members loaned Thang four glittering one-luong bars – a standard Vietnamese unit equivalent to 1.2 troy ounces (37 grams) – to break ground on his house in 2022.
At the time, they were worth around US$10,000 on the local market. Prices have nearly tripled since then and he now owes the equivalent of more than US$29,000.
“I truly don’t know when and how I can settle the debts,” said the 44-year-old, who earns less than US$700 a month from his job in pharmaceutical marketing.