Myanmar plans to sell gold to Japan

YANGON (Eleven Media Group): Myanmar is planning to sell gold to Japan, said U Myo Myint, chairman of the Yangon Region Gold Entrepreneurs Association.

"Now a Japanese company inquired to buy gold from Myanmar. We are also planning to export," U Myo Myint said.

During 2017 and 2018, gold was sold to Japan, but it had to be stopped due to the situation of the Covid-19 pandemic, he said.

“It has been exported before. It was stopped because of Covid-19. Now they are asking about price and market situation," U Myo Myint continued.

The gold exported to Japan is not pure gold, but jewelry and charm, U Myo Myint said.

“It is not pure gold. Most of them are jewelry and charms such as elephant, tiger and horse figurines," he said.

On Feb 14, 2023, the association closed the price at around 2,188,900 kyats per tical, while the gold price in the black market was around 2,865,000 kyats, according to the gold market.

Record prices of local gold prices occurred several times from 2016 to 2021, and the annual record prices per tical were 903,500 kyats on Oct 4, 2016, 957,800 kyats on Sept 15, 2017, 1047,700 kyats on Sept 20, 2018, 1,088,500 kyats on Feb 20, 2019, 1,143,500 kyats on July 18, 2019, 1,237,000 kyats on Aug 13, 2019, 1,315,000 kyats on Sept 5, 2019, 1,335,500 kyats on Aug 7, 2020, and 1,420,000 kyats on Feb 6, 2021.

The price of gold was around 900,000 kyats in 2017, 1,000,000 kyats in 2018, 1,100,000 kyats and 1,200,000 kyats in 2019, and in Sept 2019, it rose to over 1,310,000 kyats. On Feb 6, 2021, it reached a record high of 1,420,000 kyats.