A record high! Gold jewelry in gold shops exceeds 830 yuan per gram, and consumers say they can't af

On January 22, the international gold price hit a two-month high, which pushed the retail prices of gold jewelry in some branded gold shops to a new high.

On the morning of January 23, the reporter consulted several brand chain gold shops including Chow Tai Fook, Luk Fook, Lao Feng Xiang, etc. The current retail price of pure gold jewelry has reached 834-836 yuan per gram, and the processing fees of some jewelry products are calculated separately.

In December last year, the gold price underwent a wave of adjustments and fell back to the 7-digit range, but in the blink of an eye, the price of gold jewelry broke through the 800 yuan/gram mark again.

The topic of high gold prices has also sparked heated discussions among many netizens. On the evening of January 22, gold prices hit a new high and became a hot topic on Weibo. Some consumers commented that it would be difficult to buy the three golds if they were getting married this year. Some netizens also said that they had originally wanted to buy some bracelets and necklaces to reward themselves with their year-end bonuses, but now that the price has risen so much, they can't make the purchase all of a sudden.

The "crazy rise" in gold prices has to some extent suppressed consumers' desire and purchasing power to buy gold jewelry.

Statistics from the China Gold Association show that in the first three quarters of 2024, the national gold consumption was 741.732 tons, a decrease of 11.18% compared with the same period in 2023. Among them: 400.038 tons of gold jewelry, a year-on-year decrease of 27.53%; 282.721 tons of gold bars and gold coins, a year-on-year increase of 27.14%.

The China Gold Association pointed out that in the first three quarters of 2024, gold prices continued to rise, and gold jewelry consumption was significantly affected. The rapid development of new e-commerce models such as live streaming and instant retail has driven the growth of small-weight gold jewelry consumption. In the third quarter, gold prices continued to fluctuate at a high level and expectations of rising prices increased, and physical gold consumption fell.

Data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on January 17 showed that the total retail sales of gold, silver and jewelry in December 2024 was 31 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 1%. From the perspective of the whole year, the total retail sales of gold, silver and jewelry from January to December was 330 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 3.1%.

The gold jewelry industry is also facing challenges and tests. On January 22, Chow Tai Fook (01929.HK), a gold jewelry short, released its unaudited main operating data. As of December 31, 2024, the group's retail value fell by 14.2%. Among them, the retail value of the Chinese mainland market fell by 13%, and the retail value of Hong Kong, China, Macau and other markets fell by 20.4%.

(This article comes from China Business Network)