Gold prices are expected to fall in the second half of 2010 and first quarter of 2011, according to the Gold Mining fields company GFMS analysis, said Ali Saleh Batarfi Al- Kindi , deputy head of gold manufactures and member of the Jeddah committee. GFMS is the world's foremost precious metals consultancy specializing in research into the global gold, silver, platinum and pladium markets. He was addressing a seminar organized to analyze the gold price and on the development of the global and saudi Arabian gold market by Jeddah committee of gold and jewelry with the cooperation of Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industries (JCCI) and Taiba major gold manufacturers company here Saturday. Analyzing the gold price index on the basis of GMFS, Gold Mining fields company, Al-Kindi explained that the decline in gold rates ($1030 - $1060 per ounce) in the first half of this year was due to the current strength of the dollar against the euro, which is facing pressure because of the economic crisis in some European countries. “In the second half of this year till early 2011 expectations are that the dollar will be weaker so the price of gold is expected to fall, and the economic crunch will recover slowly, the investors will fall back to gold as a safe haven. So by the second quarter of 2011 prices will go down to an average of $1120 per ounce,” he said. He said that gold demand in 2008 exceeded 3800 tons and that the average price of gold in 2009 was $972 per ounce, representing 12 percent increase from 2008. Saudi Arabia consumed about 3 percent of world gold and ranked ninth in 2009. India topped the list of gold consumers while China came second followed by the United States, Iran, Germany, Turkey, Switzerland and Russia. The outlook for gold demand in the first half of 2010 will be positive, as consumers are accustomed gradually to higher gold prices, experts said. A recent report by global market studies conducted by the World Gold Council (from 2002 to the end of 2008) entitled “What women want” showed that the 73 percent gold demand worldwide was because of two factors: Gold being a luxury item, and women's penchant for gold jewelry. The seminar was attended by Mustafa A.K. Sabri, secretary general of JCCI; Sheikh Jamil Farsi, head of the Jeddah ‘s gold and jewelry committee; Dr. Wadie Kabli, professor of economics at King Abdul Aziz University(KAAU) and financial expert; Ali Saleh Batrafi Al-Kindi, deputy head of gold manufactures and member of the Jeddah committee; Bisher Diab, country manager of the World Gold Council; Majdi Al- Raies, member of the Jeddah gold and jewelry committee, major gold traders, businessmen and manufacturers.
