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Gold Prices Top $1000, Future Uncertain
The price of gold has exceeded $1000 per troy ounce. In spite of the symbolically significant figure, gold was much more expensive in 1980, when it nominally cost $850 per ounce. Adjusted for inflation, that price was equivalent to $2239. The nominal record of $850 was broken in January of this year. Gold futures are trading on the New York Comex at $1001.50. The further course of gold prices depends on the fate of the dollar, which sunk to a new low against the euro yesterday ($1.56) after Carlyle Capital announced it had defaulted on $16.6 billion in loans.
Gold gained 31 percent in price last year, against a background of crisis on international markets. Oil also hiked up to $111 per barrel for WTI and silver reached $20.90 per ounce as investors sought safe havens for their money. Analysts say gold remains the safest way to store one's savings. Meanwhile, gold-mining companies' stock got a boost yesterday as well. Polyus Zoloto climbed 2.7 percent on MICEX and Polimetall rose 0.2 percent, with a fall in the index that day of 1.78 percent.
Gold has a minimal influence on the Russian economy. Rising gold prices are beneficial for gold exporters, but oil is more influential. Rising gold prices also have a positive effect on the country's reserves. The size of the Russia's gold reserves has been increasing in the last year, as a result of which the value of country's reserves has grown in dollar amounts. Analysts expect some decrease in gold prices as the dollar recovers, but predictions remain cloudy.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Mar. 14, 2008
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Photo: Dmitry Lebedev
