Gold prices hit a record above 1,100 dollars on Monday with the dollar weakening after a pledge by G20 countries to keep economic recovery pumped up with easy money.
In morning trading here, gold struck an all-time peak of 1,109.50 dollars an ounce as the euro rose to 1.50 dollars for the first time in two weeks. Gold "established itself above the psychological (1,100-dollar) level this morning as ministers at the weekend G20 meeting pledged to maintain their fiscal stimulus measures," said James Moore, an analyst at TheBullionDesk.com. The governments of the world's biggest and top emerging economies said in a statement over the weekend that "recovery is uneven and remains dependent on policy support." And "to restore the global economy and financial system to health, we agreed to maintain support for the recovery until it is assured," the G20 said in a communique issued after a finance ministers' meeting in Scotland. The International Monetary Fund meanwhile said on Saturday that emergency stimulus measures must remain to avoid endangering a "nascent" economic recovery. "An overarching risk is that the recovery stalls" owing to early exits from record-low interest rates and massive state cash injections, the IMF said in a report to coincide with the G20 meeting. "Premature exit from accommodative monetary and fiscal policies could undermine the nascent rebound, as the policy-induced rebound could be mistaken for a strong and durable recovery," the IMF said. Last week, the US Federal Reserve decided to hold rock-bottom US interest rates for "an extended period" and to keep trillion-dollar stimulus measures in place to support the United States' fragile recovery from recession.