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Read →Gold Price in 31 Currencies: How Far Each Is Below Its 2026 High
Gold was 20.2% below its 2026 USD high on August 18, but local-currency drawdowns ranged from 11.9% in TRY to 22.8% in ILS. See the daily comparison across 31 currencies.
Market.md
TL;DR — Gold was 20.2% below its 2026 high in US dollars on August 18. The same metal was only 11.9% below its high in Turkish lira, but 22.8% below in Israeli shekels. None of the 31 currencies was still at its 2026 high. Currency translation changed the size of the drawdown by almost eleven percentage points.
The common shortcut is to quote the dollar return as though every investor experienced it. They did not. A local gold price combines two moving parts: XAU/USD and the local currency's exchange rate against the dollar.
We joined 196 daily XAU/USD observations from goldprice.dev with dated USD exchange-rate observations from exchangerate.dev. The result is a comparable local-currency gold series from January 1 through August 18, 2026, for every currency supported by the gold API.
Gold's drawdown from its 2026 high, by currency
The table is ordered from the smallest drawdown to the largest. “2026 change” compares the August 18 value with January 1. It is possible for gold to be well below its January peak and still be positive for the year because the year began before that run-up.
| Currency | 2026 high date | Below 2026 high | 2026 change |
|---|---|---|---|
| TRY | Jan 28 | −11.9% | +12.8% |
| SEK | Mar 2 | −14.4% | +4.6% |
| IDR | Jan 28 | −14.9% | +8.1% |
| RON | Jan 28 | −15.1% | +5.7% |
| THB | Jan 28 | −15.2% | +5.6% |
| PLN | Mar 2 | −15.4% | +5.1% |
| CHF | Jan 28 | −15.5% | +3.7% |
| PHP | Jan 28 | −16.1% | +6.0% |
| JPY | Mar 2 | −16.5% | +3.1% |
| INR | Jan 28 | −17.0% | +7.7% |
| MYR | Jan 28 | −17.4% | +1.2% |
| DKK | Jan 28 | −17.4% | +2.8% |
| EUR | Jan 28 | −17.5% | +2.7% |
| BGN | Jan 28 | −17.5% | +2.7% |
| CZK | Jan 28 | −17.9% | +2.4% |
| NZD | Jan 28 | −18.4% | −1.3% |
| CAD | Jan 28 | −18.4% | +2.5% |
| ZAR | Jan 28 | −18.5% | −0.8% |
| GBP | Jan 28 | −18.7% | +0.7% |
| ISK | Jan 28 | −19.1% | −0.8% |
| SGD | Jan 28 | −19.2% | +0.6% |
| BRL | Jan 28 | −19.7% | −3.8% |
| HKD | Jan 28 | −19.8% | +1.9% |
| USD | Jan 28 | −20.2% | +1.2% |
| MXN | Jan 28 | −20.7% | −4.0% |
| KRW | Jan 28 | −21.3% | −1.2% |
| AUD | Jan 28 | −21.5% | −4.9% |
| HUF | Mar 9 | −21.5% | −2.9% |
| NOK | Jan 28 | −21.9% | −5.5% |
| CNY | Jan 28 | −22.6% | −2.6% |
| ILS | Jan 28 | −22.8% | −5.1% |
Download the underlying 31-currency result table as CSV.
The currency effect changed the drawdown materially
Gold's USD daily high in this window was $5,513.43 per troy ounce on January 28. By August 18 the daily observation was $4,399.21, a 20.2% decline from that high.
The Turkish-lira series fell much less: 11.9%. The Israeli-shekel series fell more: 22.8%. That is a 10.9-point spread. Too large to wave away as rounding. Gold did not trade at different world prices; the FX leg offset or amplified part of the dollar move.
Twenty of the 31 local series remained positive from January 1 through August 18. TRY led at +12.8%, followed by IDR at +8.1% and INR at +7.7%. Eleven finished below their January 1 level. NOK was lowest at −5.5%, followed by ILS at −5.1% and AUD at −4.9%.
So “gold is up this year” and “gold is down sharply” can both be accurate. One starts the clock on January 1; the other starts at the late-January peak. Change the reference currency and both answers move again.
Most currencies peaked on the same day—but not all
Twenty-seven of the 31 series reached their 2026 daily high on January 28, the same date as USD gold. Four peaked later: JPY, PLN, and SEK on March 2, and HUF on March 9.
A later local high does not require a new USD gold record. A sufficiently large exchange-rate move can lift the converted local price even while the dollar gold price remains below its own peak. That is the useful information in a local-currency series: it preserves the metal move and the FX move instead of silently treating the dollar return as universal.
Methodology
The measurement window is January 1 through August 18, 2026. For each date and currency:
local gold price per troy ounce
= XAU/USD daily close × local-currency units per USD
Gold observations come from the goldprice.dev public one-year XAU/USD history. Exchange rates come from exchangerate.dev's historical range endpoint. We use the latest FX observation published on or before each gold date. On a weekend or market holiday, the previous rate is carried forward; a later rate is never inserted into an earlier date.
That choice fits this question because the table asks what the latest observable local reference value was on each date. A trading backtest may instead restrict itself to dates where both markets published a new observation. The local-currency gold backtest guide shows that stricter join.
For each currency, the 2026 high is the maximum derived daily value inside this window. The drawdown is:
(August 18 value ÷ 2026 high value − 1) × 100
The CSV includes the January 1 value, 2026 high value and date, August 18 value, observation count, year-to-date change, and drawdown. Values retain six decimal places for reproducibility; the article rounds percentages to one decimal place.
What this comparison does not show
These are indicative spot-derived values, not prices at which a customer could necessarily buy or sell physical metal. The calculation excludes taxes, dealer spreads, fabrication, shipping, payment fees, and the premium for a particular bar or coin. The gold premium by country study measures that separate retail layer.
The table also uses daily observations, so it does not claim to identify an intraday record. “2026 high” means the highest derived daily observation in the stated January 1–August 18 window, not an all-time high.
For current values rather than this dated study, open the live gold prices by currency or call the gold conversion endpoint. Keep the date, unit, currency, and price type beside every number; without them, a gold-price comparison is incomplete.
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Read →goldprice.dev
Live gold prices, historical OHLC, and multi-source aggregation — available via REST and SSE.