$4,000 Gold Is Changing Lives Across Central Asia
Russia's Biggest Black Sea Oil Port Goes Quiet as Drone Threat Grows Eurasianet is an independent news organization that covers news from and about the South Caucasus and Central Asia, providing on-the-ground reporting and critical perspectives on… As the price of gold has hovered around $4,000 an ounce in recent weeks, the men in the small-scale mines north of the village of Soykechar in Uzbekistan have watched every bounce and slide.
They pull up apps on their phones that show various price points.
And, by word of mouth, they know the quote on the black market.
“We are trying to make better lives, and we can buy good clothes for the children, better food, and we can go to private hospitals,” said Doniyor, the 34-year-old machinery manager of one of the operations.
The dramatic price rise has transformed Central Asia, a corner of the world heavily dependent on gold.
While the region’s governments often attribute recent rises in living standards and hot economies to their reforms, it has all been underwritten to varying degrees by rising gold prices.
And the gold boom has benefited regular people – from increased government spending to the 20 percent boost in wages the miners in Soykechar say they have received in the past year.
Yet, behind the soaring prices, high inflation, mounting government and personal debt, and fears of dependence on a single commodity are causes for concern.
“We are back to the situation of the early ‘90s, when it was one item that carried most of the dollars.
[Back then], it was cotton; and now it’s gold,” said Franco Galdini, an economist at the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom who studies the Uzbek economy.
But “the money they were making in the ‘90s and now is very, very different,” he added.
The price of a troy ounce of gold was $2,050 on international markets at the beginning of 2024 and peaked north of $5,200 in February before falling toward $4,100 this summer.
| Product | Price | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Brent Crude | $102.14/bbl | +0.34% |
| WTI Crude | $96.90/bbl | +0.21% |
| EN590 Diesel | $846/MT | +0.18% |
| Jet Fuel A-1 | $1090/MT | +0.55% |
| Mazut M100 | $450/MT | -0.15% |
| Bitumen 60/70 | $470/MT | +0.08% |
| Sulphur Gran 99.5% | $470/MT | -0.44% |
| Urea 46% Gran | $650/MT | +1.12% |
| NPK 16-16-16 | $460/MT | -0.28% |
| Nat Gas TTF | $15.42/MMBtu | +0.92% |
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