Seasif’s Franco Favilla Discusses the Price of Gold in the Post-Covid Economy

Although the Covid-19 pandemic may be far from over, there has been much discussion on the idea of a “post-Covid” economy. With markets throughout the world suffering the economic effects of the virus, experts have been looking towards the future –– and one of the topics that often comes up is the price of gold.

In August, the price of gold exceeded £1,527 (US$ 2,000) an ounce for the first time, driven by multiple factors. The rise in Covid-19 cases in the US has made the country’s economic recovery more difficult, leading to rising prices of other precious metals such as silver.

“The price of gold, from now until the end of 2020, certainly is in a situation of uncertainty: some forecasts are exaggeratedly optimistic and even talk about reaching values unthinkable up to 1 year ago, like 3 thousand dollars an ounce. Others seem very pessimistic to me. In any case, regardless of the market volatility and the price changes that could occur over a given period of time, the fundamental fact is that the price of gold over the course of 2020 has reached an all-time high, and this, in my opinion, is very good news for the world economy,” explains Franco Favilla, founder and CEO of Seasif, a multinational company active in the extraction and trading of gold and oil.

“More resilient”

According to Mr. Favilla, the dizzying increase in the price of gold is motivated by the fact that many people have realized the only way to protect themselves is to invest in the solid certainty of a gold bar, which has two fundamental advantages: being universally recognisable and divisible. Before Covid, central banks were aiming to circulate the idea that gold was something unnecessary, but the pandemic has accelerated an orientation that had already been present among savers: to focus on gold to protect themselves from speculative finance.

“Gold protects consumers, the most important component in any economic system: if you don’t have a market made up of consumers with a certain level of wealth, how can you sell? To whom? Consumer protection must come first, and gold is one of the main ways of protecting them,” states the CEO of Seasif.

Sustainability has also been at the forefront in discussions about the post-Covid world, as countries look towards establishing a more resilient global economy, one able to better withstand such events in the future –– and “green gold” may well be a part of that future.

“Green gold means, in a certain sense, ‘the gold of the future’: the metal is the one we know, what changes is the extraction process which is 100% ethical and sustainable. We at Seasif produce green gold; we believe in it with conviction and we hope for a change in the market in the same direction. For this reason we have created a department entirely dedicated to green, and allocated economic incentives to production,” says Franco Favilla.

The future may be uncertain, but for those looking for security, gold may be one of the few certainties left.