Vietnam's demand for material gold, input for production and trading of gold jewelry and some other forms of gold, is estimated at some 60 tons this year, up 20 percent against last year, local newspaper Labor reported Tuesday.

The country consumed some 50 tons of material gold, most of which was imports, the newspaper quoted the Vietnam Gold Traders Association as reporting.

The association predicted that gold prices in the Vietnamese market will remain high this year due to increasingly high world prices of the precious metal. The world gold price is likely to reach 700 U.S. dollars per oz some time in 2007, the association said.

Source: Xinhua