Third Cut in a Week: 22-Karat Gold Falls Again to Tk 2,31,880 as Bajus Tracks the Global Slide

For anyone who has walked past a jewellery shop window in Dhaka this week, the chalk board out front has barely stayed the same for two days running. Gold buyers in Bangladesh are watching prices move in a direction they have not seen much of lately, and it is down. On September 2, the Bangladesh Jewellers Association, known locally as Bajus, cut the price of 22-karat gold by Tk 4,374 per bhori, bringing the rate to Tk 2,31,880. It was the third such cut in less than a week, following reductions on August 29 and August 31 that together shaved Tk 11,489 off the price. Add it up and gold has gotten cheaper by close to Tk 16,000 a bhori in five trading days.

The new rates apply across the board. Alongside 22-karat gold at Tk 2,31,880, 21-karat gold now sells for Tk 2,21,441 per bhori, 18-karat gold for Tk 1,90,123, and traditional or Sanatan gold, the lowest purity tier typically used for older and rural jewellery designs, for Tk 1,55,306. As of September 3, jewellers across the capital were still quoting these same figures, suggesting the market has found a level it is comfortable sitting at, at least for now.

Bajus, in its notice announcing the cut, kept its explanation brief, attributing the move to a fall in the price of pure gold in the local market. That local price, in turn, tracks the international bullion market, where gold has been trading in a choppier pattern over the past couple of weeks after a long stretch of gains earlier in the year. When dollar gold eases on the London or New York markets, Bangladeshi jewellers typically follow within a day or two, since almost all of the metal sold here is imported.

It is worth remembering how we got to these levels in the first place. Through much of the past year, Bangladeshi consumers watched gold prices climb steadily, with 22-karat rates pushing past Tk 2,40,000 and even brushing higher during periods of global uncertainty and a weaker taka. Wedding season buyers and families saving for their daughters' jewellery took the hit in silence, since gold in Bangladesh is not just an investment, it is a cultural necessity woven into nearly every wedding, birth, and major family occasion. A string of cuts, even a moderate one like this, offers a bit of breathing room to households that had been pricing out purchases for months.

Bajus was also careful to clarify a point that trips up many buyers: VAT is already built into the quoted ornament prices, so shops cannot legally charge it again as a separate line item. What can still vary from shop to shop, and sometimes considerably, is the making charge, which depends on the intricacy of the design and is added on top of the metal price. A simple bangle will carry a much lower making charge than an elaborately worked necklace set, so two pieces of the same purity and weight can carry noticeably different final price tags.

Put in percentage terms rather than raw taka figures, the past week's slide looks even more significant. A cumulative drop of roughly Tk 15,863 across the three cuts works out to a decline of a little under 6.5 percent in five trading days, a meaningful move by the standards of a market that typically shifts by a few hundred taka at a time between adjustments. For a family budgeting a modest five-bhori wedding set, that percentage difference can add up to tens of thousands of taka in real savings, which is exactly the kind of arithmetic that tends to bring buyers who had been sitting on the sidelines back into showrooms. Consumer rights advocates in Dhaka continue to recommend that buyers always ask for a hallmarking certificate along with a receipt that lists purity, weight, and making charge as separate line items, since disputes over gold purity and undisclosed charges remain among the more common complaints filed with the country's consumer protection authorities.

Silver, gold's quieter cousin in the local market, moved in the same direction but by a much smaller margin. The price of 22-karat silver dropped by Tk 116 per bhori to Tk 5,016. Following the same tiered structure as gold, 21-karat silver now stands at Tk 4,782, 18-karat at Tk 4,082, and traditional silver at Tk 3,091 per bhori. Silver tends to see less dramatic single-day swings than gold simply because its lower price base means each taka of movement represents a larger percentage change, so Bajus tends to adjust it in smaller increments even when gold moves sharply.

For everyday buyers, the practical question is whether this is a good moment to buy. Financial advisors in Dhaka who track the bullion market generally caution against trying to time gold purchases around short-term news, since jewellers can and do reverse course within days depending on how the international market behaves. What matters more for a family planning a wedding purchase or an investor thinking about gold as a hedge is the broader trend over months, not the week-to-week noise. Still, for anyone with a purchase already planned, a third consecutive cut is unambiguously good news, and it comes at a moment when many households are also grappling with a taka that has been under pressure and inflation that remains stubbornly close to double digits, so any relief on a major household expense tends to be welcomed without much complaint.

Looking ahead, much depends on how the global bullion market behaves over the coming weeks. Gold has historically served as a safe haven during episodes of currency weakness and geopolitical tension, both of which have not entirely gone away in the region or globally, so a rebound in international prices, and a corresponding local increase, cannot be ruled out. Jewellers in Dhaka's Tanti Bazar and other traditional gold markets said they are watching daily price feeds closely and expect the coming week to bring at least one more adjustment in either direction, given how volatile trading has been recently. For now, though, Bangladeshi households get to enjoy a rare stretch of falling prices on one of the country's most emotionally and financially significant purchases. Buyers planning a purchase in the coming days would do well to call ahead or check a jeweller's posted rate before heading out, since Bajus typically updates its official rate sheet once a change is decided, and individual shops can occasionally lag by a few hours in reflecting it on their own boards.

22-Karat Gold Price Per Bhori, Aug 28 to Sep 2, 2026