Gold On Pace for Best Year in Four by 2017

Gold prices have yet to regain its 2011 momentum when it was close to its highest price of nearly $2,000 an ounce.  
Today, the yellow metal is $1,277.20–an overall one-year increase of 11.37 percent, despite a significant drop-off in the last month.
As 2016 nears the end, a Reuters poll shows that the yellow metal is on pace for its third yearly decline.
When it comes to gold price predictions, that doesn’t mean 2017 is on pace for a bearish year: in fact, the 35 analysts polled by Reuters project the yellow metal to reach its highest average annual price in roughly four years.
According to the Reuters poll, analysts are predicting the gold price to average $1,331 per ounce–it’s highest since 2013. Since then, the average has dropped 28 percent year-on-year.
Reuters said gold has been able to pick back up in 2016 as expectations dimmed on the Federal Reserves bumping interest rates back to the same levels before the market crash.
Others are also making strong general gold price predictions: the Templeton Emerging Markets Group has suggested that gold is on pace for a 15 percent increase by the end of next year. Such an increase would put the yellow metal at $1,400 per ounce.

In an interview with Bloomberg, Templeton Emerging Market’s executive chairman Mark Mobius said that a lot, of course, will depend on the real rates.
“The Fed is going to increase the rates by a little bit but not excessively and there is no guarantee that a rise in interest rates will put people off,” he added.
No doubt, investors will be watching the gold market closely as the year comes to an end.
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Securities Disclosure: I, Jocelyn Aspa, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.