Gold prices continues to decline on Wednesday, from its highest level in more than three months as investors expect the Federal Reserve’s (Fed) minutes with predictions the minutes will reveal policy makers backing stimulus cuts despite the weak economic reports.

The increased demand for the metal from China; which overtook India as the world’s largest consumer for gold, remained close to a three and a half month high.

Gold futures for April delivery declined as much as 0.6%, trading at $1.317.10 an ounce at the time of writing, at the same time silver for immediate delivery edged up 0.5% to $22.0448 an ounce, the highest since Nov 6, before dropping to 1.1% at $21.7016 an ounce.

The dollar index, which measures the strength of the US dollar against six major currencies, dropped 0.07% lower at 79.950 at the time of writing.

Gold – Fed Minutes

Market participants are expecting the official minutes from the Federal Reserve’s January meeting later in the day. Market analysts forecast the central bank would proceed with tapering its monthly bond purchases despite the recent weak US economic reports.

The Federal Reserve (Fed) Bank of New York released a data on Tuesday, which showed a drop in the Empire State Manufacturing Index from its previous reading of 12.51 to 4.48 in February, compared to analysts forecast of 9.00.

High Demand from China

The World Gould council (WGC) confirmed global gold demand dropped by 15% last year as a high number of outflows from the investment fund outweighed record consumer demand.

The World Gold Council also confirmed China overtook India as the world’s largest gold consumer as the demand from China climbed by 4% in the final quarter of 2013.

 

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