Its vice-president, Abdul Rasul Abdul Razak, said the volatility in prices began after the tariffs were announced, starting with RM445 per gram on April 1, falling briefly to RM430, before spiking to RM459.
“During the first week of the tariffs, sales of gold bars increased by 5%, but gold prices had actually started going up since US president Donald Trump took over office,
“Gold prices should rise gradually and not jump like that. This is dangerous, and the industry is predicting that it will go up another 15% and pass RM500 per gram,” he told FMT.
On Friday, Reuters reported that gold prices surpassed $3,200 (RM14,400) per ounce, driven by a weakening US dollar and escalating US-China trade tensions.
As of April 12, Public Gold has priced gold in Malaysia at around RM500 per gram.
On Friday, New Straits Times reported that people were “flocking to gold jewellery stores after prices reached an all-time high”, with Habib Jewels reporting an increase of 25% in customers that very day.
While Trump announced a 90-day pause on tariffs, this did not apply to China, as he raised tariffs on Chinese imports to 125%, and has since increased them to 145%.
Rasull urged Asian economies to resist policies that prioritise US interests at their expense.
“Like many countries, we use and depend on the US dollar, but because they are putting all these policies which affect us and don’t help with growth, we can’t keep following them.
“When there’s a (trade war) you know the US dollar will drop, and the price of gold will go up,” he said.
However, one jeweller who spoke to FMT painted a different picture – while their stock has appreciated in value, retail sales are slumping.
Ugeswary Selva Raja, founder of Unique Gold Palace, said her shop used to sell six to seven kilograms of gold monthly, but now struggles to hit four.
“Sales are going down as the price is going up,” she said, adding that it had risen by 50% almost a year after the price increase began.
Ugeswary also noted a shift in customer behaviour, with more people selling their gold to jewellery stores instead of buying.
“For investment, people will normally buy pure 999 gold, but its sales have dropped because people can’t buy at the moment as it is too expensive,” she said.