Gold price ‘to hit $2,000 an ounce’

In September gold hit a record of $1,920 an ounce but an annual survey from Thomson Reuters predicts the price will rise again as investors search for a safe haven from US economic woes and low interest rates in Europe.
Gold prices are on the march again. Forecast to power past $2,000 (£1,300) an ounce later this year or in early 2013, the prices will be underpinned by fearful small investors in Germany and Switzerland buying ever more bars and coins, as well as rising demand for gold jewellery from India’s and China’s burgeoning middle classes.
The Thomson Reuters GFMS annual gold survey, published on Tuesday, reveals that global investment in gold jumped more than 20% last year to a record $80bn, pushing the price to its peak of $1,920 an ounce in September. Much of this was due to physical buying of bullion: purchases of gold bars rose by more than a third to almost 1,200 metric tonnes, particularly in China, Germany, Switzerland and Austria. East Asia accounted for 456 tonnes of the total (up 53%), western markets bought 335 tonnes (up 41%) and India 297 tonnes (up 9%).
Philip Newman, research director in precious metals at Thomson Reuters GFMS, said that with the spectre of 1920s hyperinflation haunting Germans, the last two years have seen strong growth in the number of smaller investors buying gold bars and coins. “For many years now, these German-speaking markets have had a well-developed infrastructure for consumers to buy product.”