How the gold price is set in Egypt
Egypt has no official daily gold fixing. Jewellers price from one formula: the world ounce price divided by 31.1035 grams, times the karat purity, times the US dollar rate. The market then adds or subtracts a small gap for local demand, usually within 1% either way.
That is why the price moves with both the ounce and the pound’s exchange rate. One more pound on the dollar adds about EGP 116 to a 21k gram even if the ounce does not move.
The Gold Division of the Federation of Chambers of Commerce represents the traders, but prices themselves are set by the market through the day, not by a daily decision.
Selling and buying prices: what you pay and what you get
The selling price is what you pay a shop; the buying price is what the shop pays you. For 21k the gap is usually EGP 40-50 per gram; today it is about EGP 44.
Some shops deduct another 1-2% when they buy used gold. Tax experts have confirmed that selling used gold is not taxed, so a “tax” deduction on resale has no legal basis.
Making charge, VAT and hallmark fee
The quoted gram price excludes the making charge. Plain 21k jewellery carries roughly EGP 100-200 per gram, more for handmade and branded pieces.
VAT is not charged on the gold value. It is 14% of an average making charge set by Customs and collected at hallmarking: EGP 64.41 per gram for 21k and 96.64 for 18k from July 2026 to June 2027, so about EGP 9.02 per gram for 21k and 13.53 for 18k.
A small hallmark fee (under one pound per gram at its last announced revision) is added for the stamp that certifies the karat.
The gold pound and bars
The gold pound weighs 8 grams of 21k (7 grams of pure gold); the half is 4 grams and the quarter 2 grams. Its gold is worth EGP 50,424 today, and it usually sells with a premium of EGP 50-80 per gram depending on the maker.
24k bars run from 1 gram to 1 kilo; the bigger the bar, the lower the premium per gram, which is why savers with larger sums prefer them.
Before you buy
- Check today’s gram price for your karat on this page before you walk in.
- Ask for the making charge per gram before the piece is weighed, and compare shops.
- Look for the hallmark and ask for an invoice with weight, karat, gram price and making charge.
- For saving, gold pounds and bars beat jewellery because the premium is lower and mostly comes back on resale.
- Nobody knows tomorrow’s price; buying in fixed instalments smooths out the swings.
How this page calculates prices
We compute the world price from the spot ounce and the Central Bank of Egypt dollar, then calibrate it every day against the prices Egyptian jewellers announce, so the numbers here move with the market second by second and stay close to what you see in a shop. They are approximate by nature, because every shop adjusts its board slightly.