Gold Market Outlook: Q1, 2018 -- The 2018 Gold Price Target is $1,450 - $1,500 - ResearchAndMarkets.com

The "Gold Market Outlook - Q1, 2018" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

Having expected the gold price to trade well above a level of $ 1,300, the author said that the bitcoin mania might have affected the investment status of gold. Having closed the year at $ 1,296.5, with the bitcoin value having halved from a level of $ 20,000 to $ 10,000, since then the gold price steadied well above a level of $ 1,300 again, reaching an interim high of $ 1,343 on January 15, 2018.

At the same day the dollar at 1,226 hit a 3-year low against the Euro, compared to 1.20 at year-end 2017, attributed to the strength of the Euro to a German coalition deal. This deal is still looking far away however, and is challenging Merkel's position as chancellorship.

After having announced in October to half bond-buying from 60 billion to 30 billion, as another stimulus for the Euro is the consideration that owing to the strengthening economies it could end its buying of bond purchases after September, provided that the economy and inflation develop as it currently expects.

This means that the ECB is likely to run out of available debt under current rules at just over $ 2.5 trillion. It is to be considered however, that the ECB, since it commenced its quantitive easing program since March 2015, has not succeeded to stimulate inflation to just below its mandate of 2%.

It should be noted that the decline of interest rates to a null-level has made business lending, and refinancing of existing loans cheaper than ever before. This has attributed to the expected economic growth of 2.8% in 2017 and 2.7% for 2018.

Companies Mentioned

• Bitcoin
• European Central Bank

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