Hi KMTMAN. Here's another gold forecast...................
4/22/99 - Gold Price to Remain Depressed This Year: Survey
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JOHANNESBURG (April 22) XINHUA - The gold price should stay depressed for the rest of this year, a South African authoritative institution has predicted.
The Gold Fields Mineral Services (GFMS), a commodity research consultancy, said in its survey available Wednesday that the gold price in world market should stay between 265 and 305 U.S. dollars this year, five dollars beneath its January forecast.
It said expectations of low economic growth and inflation presented an unfavorable environment for gold.
The Services said gold has largely lost its former role as a financial hedge in Europe and North America, noting during the financial market turmoil, investors moved their capital into the U.S. government bonds, not gold.
Philip Klapwijk, managing director of the consultancy, said demand was weakening in many of last year"s best gold markets. India would probably not repeat its performance of last year, when it increased gold consumption by 100 tons.
Apart from the GFMS survey, the International Monetary Fund also forecast further contraction in Japan, a big gold consumer in Asia.
Japan is a large consumer of commodities and it would be hard for gold prices to rise without Japanese growth, IMF said.
Japanese economy suffered greatly in the Asian economic crisis last year. Enditem
22/04/99 10:55 GMT |
