Tamer Elgamil ·
The dollar ounce peaked on 28 January and fell 28% by late July. Egypt's 21-karat gram peaked a month later, fell about a fifth, and was still up on the year in September.
"Gold is down 28% this year" has been one of the most repeated lines in financial coverage since July. If you are holding Egyptian 21-karat jewellery, it is describing a market you do not actually transact in. Your gram had its own fall in 2026. It was smaller, it started a month later, and whether you are up or down on it depends almost entirely on which month you walked into the shop.
Gold set a record of $5,589.38 an ounce on 28 January 2026. It was the first time the metal had ever traded above $5,500, and it capped a run that gained about 65% during 2025 alone. It fell from there through the spring and early summer, reaching roughly $4,046 by late July. That is a drop of about 28%, and it is the number in the headlines.
The reasons given for the fall are the mirror image of the ones given for the rise: a firmer dollar, higher real yields, and profit-taking after an exceptional year. By mid-September the ounce had recovered some ground, trading near $4,310, still well below January's record.
Now the number an Egyptian saver actually pays and receives: the 21-karat gram, quoted in pounds.
It opened 2026 at about 5,840 pounds. It did not turn lower when the dollar ounce peaked on 28 January. It kept climbing for another month, reaching a local record of about 7,475 pounds a gram on 28 February. By 22 July, in the middle of the international trough, it was quoted at roughly 5,930 to 5,980 pounds. By 13 September it stood at about 6,280 pounds.
So the local gram did fall, and the fall was not trivial. From its own record on 28 February to late July it lost about a fifth of its value. But that is a different number from 28%, over a different set of dates, and measured from a peak that arrived a month after the global one.
Neither the global 28% nor the local 21% is your loss or gain. Yours is set by the month you bought. Measured against the 13 September price of about 6,280 pounds a gram, the same year looks like three different years:
| If you bought | You paid roughly | On 13 September you were |
|---|---|---|
| Early January 2026 | 5,840 EGP a gram | up about 7.5% |
| Late February 2026 | 7,475 EGP a gram | down about 16% |
| Late July 2026 | 5,950 EGP a gram | up about 5.5% |
Two warnings about that table. It compares quoted prices, so it ignores what you actually paid on top of the metal, such as the making charge on a piece of jewellery. It also ignores the gap between the price a shop sells at and the lower price it buys back at. Both of those matter more to a small holder than a few percentage points of headline move. The sell-back price page shows what a dealer is paying today. The gain and loss calculator can then work the comparison against your own purchase price, rather than against a round number from January.
The short answer is that the Cairo gram is not a gold price. It is a gold price multiplied by an exchange rate, and the second part had its own year.
Through 2026 the pound weakened against the dollar, from the high 40s in the opening months toward the low 50s by September. When the ounce and the pound fall together, the translation into pounds cancels part of the drop before it reaches a shop counter. That is why the local peak was late and why the local fall was shallower. It is also why a gram bought in January was worth more in September than it cost, in a year the international metal spent mostly in retreat. The exchange rate page tracks that second leg on its own.
This is a description of what already happened. It is not a claim about what comes next.
Nothing here says the pound will keep sliding at the same pace, or that a future fall in the dollar price would be softened the same way. Nothing here is a suggestion to buy or to sell. The point is narrower and more useful than that. When you read a global percentage, it is not measuring your position, because it is not measured in your currency and it is not dated from the day you bought. Before you react to it, find your own two numbers: what you paid, and what a dealer would give you now. The price history page has the local monthly path, and the gold price by karat page has today's figure.
The international dollar price did. It set a record of 5,589.38 dollars an ounce on 28 January 2026 and fell to roughly 4,046 dollars by late July, a drop of about 28 percent, before recovering to near 4,310 dollars by mid-September.
No, and it did not escape unharmed either. The 21-karat gram reached a local record of about 7,475 pounds on 28 February, a month after the global peak, and was quoted at about 5,930 to 5,980 pounds on 22 July. That is a fall of roughly a fifth from its own record, measured over different dates than the global 28 percent.
Because the Cairo price is the dollar ounce converted at the pound's exchange rate, and the pound was weakening against the dollar through 2026, from the high 40s early in the year toward the low 50s by September. A falling pound kept pushing the local price up for a while after the dollar price had already turned down.
Compare what you actually paid, on the date you paid it, against what a dealer will pay you today rather than against the retail price in the window. Remember that a making charge on jewellery is generally not recovered on resale. The sell-back price page and the gain and loss calculator on this site are built for that comparison.