bodyType

customContents

entityId

printArticlePageQuery

filter

article

body

urlAlias

articleSectionsContent

articleSeoArticle

articleSourceHeaderArticle

contentSchemaRenderContent

contentSubHeadlineContent

contentHeadlineContent

mainImagePrintArticleArticle

authorBlockPrintArticleArticle

contentSponsorTagContent

articlePianoPaywallContent

scmpYoutubeContent

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

query printArticlePageQuery(
  $entityId: String!
  $customContents: [CustomContentInput]
  $bodyType: BodyFormatTypeEnum
) {
  article(filter: {entityId: $entityId}) {
    entityId
    body(customContents: $customContents, type: $bodyType) {
      json
    }
    urlAlias
    ...articleSectionsContent
    ...articleSeoArticle_3o8td4
    ...articleSourceHeaderArticle
    ...contentSchemaRenderContent
    ...contentSubHeadlineContent
    ...contentHeadlineContent
    ...mainImagePrintArticleArticle
    ...authorBlockPrintArticleArticle
    ...contentSponsorTagContent
    ...articlePianoPaywallContent
    ...scmpYoutubeContent
    ...hooksTrackPageViewArticle
    id
  }
}

fragment articlePianoPaywallContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...hooksPaywallPromiseContent
}

fragment articleSectionsContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  sectionsV2 {
    value {
      __typename
      ... on Section {
        name
        published
      }
      ... on VideoSection {
        name
        published
      }
      ...helpersCheckIfNewsSectionInFirstIndexSection
      ...entityLink
      ... on Node {
        __isNode: __typename
        id
      }
    }
  }
}

fragment articleSeoArticle_3o8td4 on Article {
  ...hooksArticleSeoArticle
  ...helpersGetArticleTypeArticle
  entityId
  publishedDate
  updatedDate
  summary {
    text
  }
  subHeadline {
    text
  }
  body(customContents: $customContents, type: $bodyType) {
    text
  }
  keywords
  sectionsV2 {
    value {
      __typename
      ... on Section {
        name
      }
      ... on Node {
        __isNode: __typename
        id
      }
    }
  }
  topics {
    name
    entityId
    id
  }
  urlAlias
  authors {
    name
    id
  }
  images {
    style(filter: {style: "768x768"}) {
      url
    }
  }
  readingTime
}

fragment articleSourceHeaderArticle on Article {
  urlAlias
  ...entityLink
}

fragment authorBlockPrintArticleArticle on Article {
  ...defaultArticleDateContent
  ...authorNamesArticle
}

fragment authorNameAuthor on Author {
  ...entityLink
  name
  entityUuid
}

fragment authorNamesArticle on Article {
  authorLocations
  authors {
    entityId
    location
    ...authorNameAuthor
    id
  }
}

fragment blockquoteQuoteContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...contentShareWidgetContent
}

fragment checkersCheckContentContainsStarlingImageContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  topics {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment contentHeadlineContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  headline
  socialHeadline
  ...contentHeadlineTagContent
  ...helpersUseContentSponsorContent
}

fragment contentHeadlineTagContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...hooksContentHeadlineTagContent
}

fragment contentNewsletterWidgetContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  topics {
    relatedNewsletters {
      ...helpersMassageToNewsletterItemNewsletter
      id
    }
    id
  }
  sectionsV2 {
    value {
      __typename
      ... on Section {
        relatedNewsletters {
          ...helpersMassageToNewsletterItemNewsletter
          id
        }
      }
      ... on Node {
        __isNode: __typename
        id
      }
    }
  }
  ... on Article {
    relatedNewsletters {
      ...helpersMassageToNewsletterItemNewsletter
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment contentSchemaRenderContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...blockquoteQuoteContent
  ...hooksInlinePlusWidgetContent
  ...imageContent
  ...inlineWidgetContent
  ...photoGalleryWidgetContent
  ...scmpYoutubeContent
}

fragment contentShareWidgetContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  __typename
  entityId
  urlAlias
  shortUrl
  socialHeadline
  headline
  ... on Video {
    youtubeId
  }
}

fragment contentSponsorTagContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...helpersUseContentSponsorContent
}

fragment contentSubHeadlineContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  subHeadline {
    json
  }
  summary {
    json
  }
  ...contentSchemaRenderContent
}

fragment defaultArticleDateContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...hooksArticleDateUtilsContent
}

fragment entityLink on BaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias {
  __isBaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias: __typename
  __typename
  entityId
  entityUuid
  urlAlias
  urlRedirect {
    toUrl
    id
  }
  application {
    entityId
    id
  }
  ... on Section {
    fullSectionPath {
      entityId
      id
    }
    parentSection
  }
  ...helpersAppBarVariantBase
  ...helpersApplicationBase
  ...helpersCheckIsPlusArticle
  ...helpersStyleSectionContent
}

fragment helpersAppBarVariantBase on BaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias {
  __isBaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias: __typename
  ...helpersCheckIsLiveArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsPlusPage
  ...helpersCheckIsPostMagazineArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsStyleArticle
  ...helpersSectionContent
  ...helpersStyleSectionContent
}

fragment helpersApplicationBase on BaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias {
  __isBaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias: __typename
  ...helpersCheckIsPlusPage
}

fragment helpersCheckIfNewsSectionInFirstIndexSection on SectionUnion {
  __isSectionUnion: __typename
  ... on Section {
    name
  }
  ... on VideoSection {
    name
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsAmpEnabledArticle on Article {
  entityId
  types {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
  sectionsV2 {
    value {
      __typename
      ... on Section {
        entityId
      }
      ... on Node {
        __isNode: __typename
        id
      }
    }
  }
  disableOffPlatformContent
  sponsorType
  published
  ...helpersCheckIsPlusArticle
}

fragment helpersCheckIsLiveArticle on Article {
  flattenTypeIds
  liveArticle {
    status
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsMainTopicContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  topics {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsPlusArticle on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ... on Article {
    paywallTypes {
      entityUuid
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsPlusPage on Page {
  urlAlias
}

fragment helpersCheckIsPostMagazineArticle on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  sectionsV2 {
    value {
      __typename
      ... on Section {
        entityId
      }
      ... on Node {
        __isNode: __typename
        id
      }
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsStyleArticle on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  sectionsV2 {
    value {
      __typename
      ... on Section {
        entityId
      }
      ... on VideoSection {
        entityId
      }
      ... on Node {
        __isNode: __typename
        id
      }
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersGetArticleTypeArticle on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ... on Article {
    types {
      value {
        entityId
        id
      }
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersMassageToNewsletterItemNewsletter on Newsletter {
  entityId
  name
  alternativeName
  description {
    text
  }
  summary {
    text
  }
  homepageDescription {
    text
  }
}

fragment helpersSanitizeArticleTypeEntityIdsArticle on Article {
  types {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersSanitizeAuthorTypesArticle on Article {
  authors {
    types
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersSanitizedAuthorEntityIdsArticle on Article {
  authors {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersSectionContent on Section {
  fullSectionPath {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersStyleSectionContent on Section {
  fullSectionPath {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersUseContentSponsorContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  topics {
    entityId
    sponsor {
      ...sponsorTagSponsor
      name
      type
      id
    }
    id
  }
  ... on Article {
    sponsorType
  }
  ...helpersCheckIsMainTopicContent
}

fragment hooksArticleDateUtilsContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  createdDate
  publishedDate
  updatedDate
}

fragment hooksArticleSeoArticle on Article {
  ...helpersCheckIsPostMagazineArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsStyleArticle
  ...hooksContentHeadlineTagContent
  ...helpersCheckIsAmpEnabledArticle
  entityId
  headline
  socialHeadline
  types {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
  authors {
    entityId
    id
  }
  images {
    generic_og: style(filter: {style: "og_image_scmp_generic"}) {
      url
    }
    styles(filter: {styles: ["og_postmag", "og_image_style", "og_image_scmp_analysis", "og_image_scmp_explainer", "og_image_scmp_editorial", "og_image_scmp_fact_check", "og_image_scmp_debate", "og_image_scmp_live", "og_image_scmp_obituary", "og_image_scmp_opinion", "og_image_scmp_review", "og_image_scmp_series", "og_image_scmp_generic"]}) {
      url
      style
    }
    type
  }
  urlAlias
}

fragment hooksContentHeadlineTagContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  __typename
  ... on Article {
    types {
      value {
        name
        entityId
        description {
          text
        }
        id
      }
    }
    ...helpersCheckIsStyleArticle
  }
  flag
  sectionsV2 {
    value {
      __typename
      ... on Section {
        name
      }
      ... on VideoSection {
        name
      }
      ... on Node {
        __isNode: __typename
        id
      }
    }
  }
  ...hooksContentHelperContent
}

fragment hooksContentHelperContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...helpersSanitizeArticleTypeEntityIdsArticle
  ...helpersSanitizeAuthorTypesArticle
  ...helpersSanitizedAuthorEntityIdsArticle
  flag
}

fragment hooksInlinePlusWidgetContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  topics {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment hooksPaywallPromiseContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  entityId
}

fragment hooksTrackPageViewArticle on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  entityId
  publishedDate
  headline
  sectionsV2 {
    value {
      __typename
      ... on Section {
        name
      }
      ... on Node {
        __isNode: __typename
        id
      }
    }
  }
  urlAlias
  authors {
    name
    id
  }
  entityUuid
}

fragment imageContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  headline
  ...checkersCheckContentContainsStarlingImageContent
}

fragment inlineWidgetContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...contentNewsletterWidgetContent
}

fragment mainImagePrintArticleArticle on Article {
  images {
    title
    url
    isSlideshow
    size_652x446: style(filter: {style: "652x446"}) {
      url
    }
  }
}

fragment photoGalleryDialogContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  __typename
  ...contentShareWidgetContent
}

fragment photoGalleryWidgetContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...photoGalleryDialogContent
}

fragment scmpYoutubeContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  entityId
  urlAlias
  publishedDate
}

fragment sponsorTagSponsor on Sponsor {
  name
  type
  images {
    url
  }
}


types

sectionsV2

disableOffPlatformContent

sponsorType

published

headline

socialHeadline

authors

images

publishedDate

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

keywords

topics

readingTime

authorLocations

Su-Lin Tan

Anxious consumers in Vietnam and Thailand are rushing to buy gold – a sign of Asia’s mounting alarm, analysts say, over currency devaluations against the US dollar, inflation, and geopolitical uncertainty.
Visible queues of buyers waiting to snap up chunks of the yellow metal have persisted outside banks in the Southeast Asian nations for months, in scenes that underscore a growing sense of economic and geopolitical instability rippling through the region.
“What they are trying to do is to protect themselves against local currency depreciation,” said Singapore-based commodities and financial markets expert Michael Langford.
“If you don’t have much money in life, and all the goods that you buy and sell are ultimately priced in US dollars, and your local currency is going down, that doesn’t feel good. You have got inflation working against you, plus you’ve got currency depreciation. You are getting hit twice.”
Southeast Asia’s rush for gold has pushed prices up over the last six to 12 months, said Langford, who is executive director of corporate consultancy Airguide International.


Gold prices have soared to new heights this year, peaking at an all-time high of US$2,450 an ounce in May.
In China too, waning confidence in property and stock markets has seen investors chase gold as a safe haven.
Anxiety over economic turmoil, geopolitical insecurity and currency devaluations is fuelling a flight to gold, a traditional safe-haven investment.
Currency depreciation bites hardest for small-time investors, eroding their savings and inflating costs.
Southeast Asians are particularly inclined to buy gold due to long-held beliefs that the metal is a reliable and tangible “long-term store of value” compared with other assets, according to Shaokai Fan, the World Gold Council’s head of central banks and Asia-Pacific.
And it’s not just these everyday investors who are seeking a safe haven – central banks are also buying gold at a “blistering rate”, according to the Council.
More than 80 per cent of central banks expect their reserve managers to increase their gold holdings over the next 12 months, a survey published by the council on June 18 revealed – stockpiling the precious metal as a bulwark against heightened geopolitical risks and mounting macroeconomic uncertainties.

“Extraordinary market pressure, unprecedented economic uncertainty and political upheavals around the world have kept gold front of mind for central banks,” Fan said Fan, the council’s central banks and Asia-Pacific head.
“What has been remarkable is that despite record demand from the official sector in the last two years, coupled with climbing gold prices, many reserve managers still maintain their enthusiasm for gold.”
Typically, high US interest rates would depress gold prices. Yet gold’s sustained strength suggests investors are more concerned with sticky global inflation, economic uncertainty, and geopolitical tensions than rising rates, National University of Singapore Business School strategy and policy lecturer Xu Le wrote in a May analysis.
In Asian markets, investors are bucking their typical pattern of buying gold only on price dips – opting to purchase the precious metal even as prices surge, the World Gold Council said.

‘Fighting to buy’
Historically, Vietnam and Thailand have been some of Southeast Asia’s biggest gold buyers, while China and India have dominated the wider regional market.
Gold buyers rushed Vietnam’s state-owned banks in June after the central bank agreed to sell more gold to meet public demand and drive down prices, local reports say.
Banks rapidly depleted their supplies, forcing them to limit purchases to 1 tael per buyer. The queues continued for weeks until the banks implemented an online registration system for gold purchases, which also filled up within minutes each day.
Gold bars have now become the major channel of investment in Vietnam
Huynh Trung Khanh, Vietnam Gold Traders Association
The sell-off briefly calmed gold prices, but they remained elevated because buyers are still worried about plunging savings interest rates, the frozen real estate market, and the ongoing devaluation of the dong, Vietnam Gold Traders Association vice-chairman Huynh Trung Khanh told the Asia-Pacific Precious Metals Conference in Singapore in June.
“Gold bars have now become the major channel of investment in Vietnam,” he said. “They are now queuing in the rain and in the sun to buy bars … commercial banks have sold two tonnes of gold in one week, previously they sold two tonnes in one month.”
Vietnam’s currency, the dong, has depreciated about 10 per cent versus the US dollar since the tail-end of the pandemic in 2022, with the downward trend continuing, foreign exchange data shows.
Meanwhile, Vietnam’s inflation rate touched 4.44 per cent in May – its highest level since early 2023.
In Thailand too, ordinary investors are flocking to gold. Nuttapong Hirunyasiri, managing director of MTS Gold Group told the Asia-Pacific Precious Metals Conference this was the first time in his career he had seen Thais buy gold when prices were rising.

“At this price people should be selling but everybody is buying. People are actually fighting to buy,” he said.
“The local consumers are very smart, when they hear some news, they straightaway run to the gold shops.”
He described how, following Iran’s missile strike on Israel in April, long lines immediately formed outside gold shops in Thailand – a pattern that repeated with each new bout of bad news.
He attributed this to Thai investors turning to gold as the local stock market remained soft, providing an alternative safe haven.
Like Vietnam’s dong, the Thai baht has also depreciated around 10 per cent versus the US dollar since 2022. Inflation hit 1.54 per cent in May, the highest since April last year, according to foreign exchange and market data.
Chinese investors also bolstered gold prices as they joined in the buying frenzy. Videos on TikTok and its mainland China counterpart Douyin have shown crowds queuing up to purchase gold in cities like Shenzhen.
Queues were not seen in places like Singapore, where the currency and economy remained stable. However, a retailer in the city’s Little India reported customers regularly buying gold to hedge against potential interest rate changes.


Gold-buying frenzy grips Vietnam and Thailand as economic fears mount

Customers buy and sell gold at a local gold shop in Hanoi, Vietnam. Photo: AFP

A seller of household electrical appliances uses a mobile phone as she waits for customers at a shop in Hanoi. Economic uncertainties are mounting. Photo: AFP

Gold has “captivated the public”, a Vietnamese Communist Party newspaper reported in June. Photo: dpa

Thais queue to buy gold at a jewellery shop in Bangkok. Thai investors turn to gold when the local stock market is soft. Photo: AFP

This Week in Asia

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Southeast Asia’s rush for gold is pushing prices up, but it’s not just everyday investors – central banks are buying at a ‘blistering rate’ too


Southeast Asia’s rush for gold is pushing prices up, but it’s not just everyday investors – central banks are buying at a ‘blistering rate’ too.


Gold-buying frenzy grips Vietnam and Thailand as economic fears mount

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;}Southeast Asia’s rush for gold is pushing prices up, but it’s not just everyday investors – central banks are buying at a ‘blistering rate’ too

Southeast Asia’s rush for gold is pushing prices up, but it’s not just everyday investors – central banks are buying at a ‘blistering rate’ too