Gold falls ahead of critical interest rate decisions

Gold prices are falling this week ahead of major central bank interest rate decisions. While bullion gold has fallen this year due to the Fed’s aggressive monetary policy, it has recouped some of its losses since early November as the Fed has been giving less hawkish messages, approaching $1,800 per ounce. Spot gold is trading at $1,788 per ounce today, down 0.4 percent. Prices had risen 0.5 percent on Friday. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.1 percent today, while silver, platinum and palladium are falling. The U.S. Federal Reserve is expected to slow the pace of interest rate hikes from 75 basis points to 50 basis points at its monetary policy meeting this week and signal that interest rate hikes will continue in 2023. The interest rate decisions of the European Central Bank and the Bank of England will also be on the markets’ radar this week.