for: gold

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold Of all the precious metals, gold is the most popular as an investment. Investors generally buy gold as a hedge or safe haven against any economic, political, social, or currency-based crises. These crises include investment market declines, inflation, war, and social unrest. Investors also buy gold during times of a bull market in an attempt to gain financially.

Gold price

Gold price in US Dollars 1968 — 2008. Throughout history gold has often been used as money and, instead of quoting the gold price, all other commodities were measured in gold. After World War II a gold standard was established following the 1946 Bretton Woods conference, fixing the gold price at $35 per troy ounce.

The system held up until 1971 Nixon Shock, when the US stopped the direct convertibility of the United States dollar to gold. Since 1968 the usual benchmark for the price of gold is known as the London Gold Fixing, a twice-daily (telephone) meeting of representatives from five bullion-trading firms. Furthermore, there is active gold trading based on the intra-day spot price, derived from gold-trading markets around the world as they open and close throughout the day. The following table sets forth the gold price versus various assets and key statistics:

In March 2008 the gold price reached above $1000, reaching an all-time nominal high of $1002.80 which, in real terms was still well below the $850 peak in 1980. It then fell, going as low as $709.50 in November, then resumed its upward trend, temporarily breaking the $1000 barrier again in late February 2009.

Factors influencing the gold price

Today, like all investments and commodities, the price of gold is ultimately driven by supply and demand. Unlike most other commodities, the hoarding and disposal plays a much bigger role in affecting the price, because most of the gold ever mined still exists and is potentially able to come on to the market for the right price.[http://money.howstuffworks.com/question213.htm Howstuffwo678rks "All the gold in the world" ][http://www.gold.org/value/markets/supply_demand/recycled.html World Gold Council > value > market intelligence > supply & demand > recycled gold ] Given the huge quantity of stored gold, compared to the annual production, the price of gold is mainly affected by changes in sentiment, rather than changes in annual production. According to the World Gold Council, annual mine production of gold over the last few years has been close to 2,500 tonnes.[http://www.gold.org/deliver.php?file=/value/stats/statistics/pdf/Supply_Demand.pdf Please login to download > World Gold Council, the information resource for gold, investment, jewellery, science and technology, historical and culture > Please login to download ] About 2,000 tonnes goes into jewelry or industrial/dental production, and around 500 tonnes goes to retail investors and exchange traded gold funds. This translates to an annual demand for gold to be 1000 tonnes in excess over mine production which has come from central bank sales and other disposal.