Political, economic turmoil spurring gold price to unseen heights
Gold’s meteoric rise reached new levels on March 14, when it breached the $3,000 USD per ounce mark for the first time in history.
But Yvonne Blaszczyk suggests the asset’s growth is nowhere near hitting its ceiling, with the CEO predicting gold will rise to a staggering $4,000 USD per ounce by the end of the year, citing global financial and political turmoil as the main drivers behind what she sees as a continuing surge.
“Gold is going to go up in value, the price is going to rise dramatically, and it will continue rise for variety of reasons,” said Blaszczyk, President and CEO of BMG Group. “We cannot attribute one factor, you have to look at the total geopolitical and financial structure, global structure, and what are the players and what is happening with their financial systems.”
Gold has traditionally been seen as a strong asset to hold during economic uncertainty, and Blaszczyk says one of the strongest indicators of its future success is the current accumulation of the asset by central banks across the globe.
“Gold has a basic ability to withstand any kind of a turmoil, whether it is financial, geopolitical or any cataclysm,” she said. “I follow central banks, and they are accumulating gold. That's a very significant factor in understanding where gold is.”
Blaszczyk says the emergence of BRICS as an alternative to traditional banking backed by the USD is a firm signal of gold’s potential, as it has the capacity to fill a void left by the exodus. She points to the years-long push from BRICS countries, many of whom are under long-term US sanctions, to bypass the USD’s financial hegemony. The Cross-Border Interbank Payment System, China’s answer to the SWIFT standard, is another component in Blaszczyk’s bullish mindset, as she points to reports that the Chinese system transfers funds almost instantly, while SWIFT takes up to three days.
“I believe that that US dollar will not lose its role as a reserve currency, but I also believe that there is a chance that the US dollar will have to share that status of reserve currency with another currency or another form of exchange,” she said.
While US President Donald Trump’s wide sweeping tariffs have caused significant volatility in the current market, Blaszczyk suggests that gold would still be in a strong position due to the shifting geopolitical dynamics. She points out that tariffs are ever-present in global markets, though the magnitude of the US’ economic shift has created widespread panic, which is further improving gold prices.
“I was expecting rise of gold regardless tariffs,” she said. “There are always tariffs to some degree, and public was not really aware of them... Now it's become a huge political and emotional issue everywhere. So that be additional factor. They will create a fear, more chaos, more instability, which will affect positively gold in particular.”
With internal disputes and political instability increasingly visible in Europe, Blaszczyk wonders if the Euro will be able to withstand as a currency in the long-term, suggesting there may be a possibility of major European countries reverting back to local currencies and the EU even ceasing to exist.
“At this point, Europe has a lot of issues; public, financial, social,” she said. “The economic, political and social pressures, could basically break up the union, and countries will go to the individual local currency, and perhaps even consider backing it with gold.”
Blaszczyk’s passionate belief in gold’s value is rooted in the asset’s ability to perform steadily in times of market stability, but also to outperform the market during periods of high volatility. She believes the role of an advisor is to preserve their client’s wealth, and that gold is the most certain way to do so.
“Wealth is about preserving a someone's lifestyle … You need to somehow preserved against the market fluctuations,” she said. “Not only in terms of turmoil, times of war, times of a insecurity or some economic collapse, but some exposure to gold should be a critical component of everyone's portfolio or savings.”
The rise of digital currencies as popular assets to hedge against market volatility has seen some comparison to gold’s strengths. And while Blaszczyk believes there is plenty of value in digital currencies, she suggests that gold’s advantage lies in the fact that it has no energy demands, particularly in potential situations of electricity failures.
“Imagine you have physical gold and you have some digital currency, and there is a flash point, and you lose internet and electricity,” she said. “Who is going to be able to buy bread? It could be a blackout, even temporary, that would create huge financial losses. So how do you protect yourself? You can have both. You can have a digital currency and you can have a currency backed by gold.”
