In the face of continued turmoil in the Middle East and North Africa, in addition to the growing spectre of inflation in the Western world, Gold pushed up and over existing predictions to hit a new market high of $1,460 an ounce on 6 April.
As an analyst at Forex.com put it in the Financial Times; “Inflationary fears are fuelling strength in precious metals. As oil takes another leap higher, gold and silver follow, and there is little standing in its way between where it is now and $1,500 per ounce.” http://on.ft.com/gtg9v1
Extraordinarily dire predictions for the continuing debt crisis in the European Union are helping to fuel booming gold prices. The Daily Telegraph of 6 April pointed out that Gold rose sharply following the downgrading of Portugal’s credit rating and speculation that the country might default on its debt; a third EU bail-out could conceivably drive prices to dizzying heights http://bit.ly/g585J3.
Silver also benefited from an upward price shift. The Silver/Gold ratio, used to work out how many ounces of Silver can buy one of Gold, fell to its lowest level since 1983 at 36.7. It is probable that analysts are now revising predictions for the end of year prices of Gold and Silver, as neither precious metal seems to show any sign of downfall.