With strong gains, will gold steal the spotlight from the dollar?

For the second week in a row, gold managed to catch its breath and post good weekly gains with losses chasing the US dollar against the global basket of currencies.

Futures on the yellow metal closed the week’s trading up 0.6% to the level of $ 1,810.6 per ounce, making gains for the third week in a row of 1.5%. The spot price of gold also rose 0.4% to the $ 1,810.5 per ounce level.

The precious metal’s gains come as the US dollar is heading for losses against a basket of global currencies, with the US Greenback falling 0.2% against the euro, registering $ 1.1872. The US dollar also fell 0.7% against the British pound, to the $ 1.3878 level. While the dollar appreciated against the Japanese yen by more than 0.4% to the level of 110,200 yen.

The recent Federal Reserve had stressed the need for the United States to be prepared in the event of significant inflation or other economic risks. The minutes revealed a division over inflation risks, given relatively high unemployment rates, with estimates that the U.S. central bank may cut asset purchases sooner than expected. And he said the majority view is that inflation risks are on the rise.

US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell has stressed that a decision will not be taken to raise interest rates too quickly amid fears of an increase in the rate of inflation. “We will not preventively raise interest rates because we fear potential inflation,” he said during a hearing before Congress.

According to a recent report by the World Gold Council, about a third of the world’s precious metal production in the past year, or about 29.5%, came from three countries, namely China, with a share of 10, 6%, equivalent to about 368.3 tons, then Russia, with a share of 9.5%, equivalent to about 331.1 tons, then Australia, with a share of about 9.4%, equivalent to about 327.8 tons.

In fourth place, the United States of America came in with a production volume of around 190.2 tonnes. Canada ranked fifth with a production volume of around 170.6 tonnes, followed by Ghana in sixth place, with a production volume of around 138.7 tonnes.

In seventh place, Brazil came with a production volume of around 107 tonnes, and in eighth and ninth place globally come Mexico and Uzbekistan with production of 101.6 tonnes each. In tenth and last place, Indonesia arrived with a production volume of around 100 tons in the year 2020.