Gold prices in Phnom Penh have declined 8 percent over the last several weeks as the number of buyers has decreased, according to gold merchants in capital.
Ly Hour Exchange in Phsar O’Russei is currently buying gold for $1,290 per damlung and selling it for $1,300, though in mid-January the selling price reached $1,400, according to the exchange’s price lists.
The price is still high compared to one and two years ago. In February 2008, the shop sold gold for $1,077 per damlung, and in February 2007 the price stood at about $1,000 per damlung, which is a measurement equal to 1.31 ounces.
“It is so hard to sell gold now,” said the owner of Heng Chai Tet shop near Phsar Thmei, who asked not to be named. “When the price of real estate was increasing, I could sell many kilos of gold…. [Now] the people might owe the debt for land selling and buying. That is why many people do not buy gold but are selling instead.”
Cambodia’s drop in gold prices trails a recent and modest upward trend in gold prices worldwide. February gold prices rose $13.50, or 1.3 percent, reaching $1,065.70 per ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange Monday, The Wall Street Journal reported. That price, converted to damlung, equals to about $1,395. Analysts attribute the recent surge to bargain-hunters, according to the newspaper.
Mekong Golden at Phsar Thmei now lists its selling price for a damlung of gold at $1,300, whereas in early January the price stood at $1,470 per damlung.
“The price has gone down for about half a month,” said Mekong Golden’s owner, who declined to give her name. “It is because of the changing world market.”
