Beirut, Lebanon – Simon Bouri sat behind the desk of his Beirut-based jewellery store, smoking a cigarette and answering calls from a client. Next to him, Aziz Arida fiddled with a beaded masbaha, also known as worry beads.Simon has worked in the jewellery sector for decades. But a recent rise and spike in the price of gold and silver has thrown many in the industry for a loop. By Wednesday, the gold price hovered at about $5,000 per troy ounce (31.1g), somewhere in between the recent high of $5,595 and the low of about $4,600.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list“We cannot predict anything,” Simon said. “It’s crazy.”“Have you seen a 20 percent fluctuation in one day before?” Simon asked, turning to Aziz, incredulously. Aziz works in commodities, such as wheat and other perishable items.“Only once,” Aziz replied sombrely. “Chornobyl.”The disaster concerning a nuclear power plant in Ukraine shot wheat prices up in 1986. But unlike in that infamous incident, there is still no single widely understood and identifiable act or reason as to why gold and silver have gone through such a radical fluctuation in such a short period of time.‘Nobody understands this’Since 2019, Lebanon has been in one of modern history’s worst economic and banking crises. But even before then, many Lebanese have looked to invest in precious metals, particularly gold, as a way to protect their money from inflation.Whereas banks have lost the public’s trust, gold has widely been seen as a safe investment whose valu …
