Dubai gold rate: Eid Al Adha offers start with price steady - is that enough?

Dubai: As the Eid Al Adha focused gold and jewellery promotions start in the UAE, shoppers can take heart in one detail – the Dubai gold price remains in the Dh365-Dh369 a gram range for 22K. Currently, the rate is Dh367 with shoppers expected to wait a couple of more days to see if there is any chance for it to drop further.

In Dubai, the Gold and Jewellery Group backed promotions will go all the way to June 9, with ‘half-back’ and gold exchange schemes expected to be the most popular.

“So far, gold prices are not showing any tendency to drop below Dh360 or even go down to Dh350,” said a jewellery retailer. “That’s what most of shoppers in the UAE were expecting – because a lot of them had delayed new purchases in the hope of a better price during Eid Al Adha promotions.”

This year, the UAE gold and jewellery retail sales had been under-performing for the most part because of the sudden and sharp increases in the metal's price.

Shoppers had been hoping for some price respite in June - but based on today's trends, it's all flat now.

Based on what’s been happening in the last 7 days, the current rate can be seen as a ‘par’ one for shoppers. There is a Dh1.5-Dh2.75 price advantage compared to where rates were on May 28 and 29.

But if shoppers were to look back to May 18, they would find today’s price is Dh9.5 a gram costlier. “A shopper sees that near Dh10 price difference and will be thinking ‘does it make sense to buy now?’,” said the jeweler. “That’s going to have a major influence in determining how well gold sales do during Eid Al Adha.”

Looking at the bullion rates, current price is just over $3,000 an ounce. What's remarkable is that this means gold prices have more or less remained flat in the last 30 days. And only up by $1.88 if you compare the performance in the last 6 months.

What makes this striking is when this is compared to the extreme price volatility gold showed since the start of the year - and especially after the US tariff announcements in early April.