SINGAPORE) Singaporean housewife Siti Khadijah Abdul Rahman accumulated a few thousand dollars' worth of gold accessories over the past two decades, but now a rising cost of living is forcing her to pawn them.
With a stretched household budget that must also cater to school expenses for her two teenaged children, the 49-year-old is pawning her gold to relieve pressure on her security guard husband, who earns S$1,500 a month.
"Pawning is better than going to friends or family when you have budget problems," said Siti Khadijah. "When I have money, I will claim it back."
She is one of a rapidly increasing number of people opting to take short-term pawnshop loans to try to keep up with rising prices, in what the Economist Intelligence Unit has ranked the world's sixth most expensive city in which to live. Full story
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