"We foresee global investment demand for gold to grow even further," Blanchard and Company VP says
Gold analysts have turned increasingly bullish on the outlook for prices in the final quarter of 2012, unanimously expecting a record-high average, and further gains next year, a Reuters poll showed on Wednesday.
The world's major central banks this year have pledged to pump more cash into the financial markets to lower borrowing costs in an attempt to beat a slowing global economy.
Commitments in particular from the US Federal Reserve to buy mortgage-backed bonds until job creation improves and from the European Central Bank to buy bonds of indebted euro zone nations that meet certain criteria have served to put
gold on track for a thirteenth year of successive gains in 2013.
A Reuters poll of 27 analysts offered a median average
gold price forecast of $1,690 an ounce for 2012, up a touch from a forecast of $1,685 at the end of the second quarter and compared with the $1,765 estimated in January.
This would be the highest average
gold price for any year on record, although it falls short of the actual all-time high of $1,920.30 struck in September 2011.
Gold is expected to average $1,785.00 an ounce for the final three months of this year, up from $1,750 forecast in June, before rising to average $1,853.75 next year.
Analysts previously forecast the
gold price to rise to an average $1,791.25 an ounce in 2013.
"
Gold is reasserting itself as a strong safe haven during the current period of risk and uncertainty. The European debt crisis remains a major issue ... and other major indicators in the US and abroad continue to illustrate just how feeble the economy remains," David Beahm, vice president, marketing and economic research, at
Blanchard and Company, said.
"Many investors have moved into
gold to protect and grow their wealth, and we foresee global investment demand for
gold to grow even further than the 900 percent increase it has seen since 2007," Beahm added.
The appeal of the dollar as a safe-haven asset for investors seeking an alternative to the euro or higher-risk currencies acted as a headwind to the gold price in the first half of this year when the US unit rose in value.
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