The international gold price benefited from the crisis in Ukraine, but its rally was limited by the hawkish momentum of the Federal Reserve.

Spot gold rose on Monday, boosted by safe-haven demand as the crisis in Ukraine showed no sign of abating, although the Fed plans to take aggressive measures to combat inflation, limiting gold's gains.

Spot gold rose 0.16% to $1924.40 / oz, while the main COMEX gold contract fell 0.22% to $1925.1 / oz, and the dollar index was unchanged at 98.242.

Ukraine on Monday rejected a Russian request to hand over the port city of Mariupol (Mariupol), where residents are besieged with little food, water or electricity, and fierce fighting shows little sign of abating.

Gold holdings in SPDR Gold Trust, the world's largest gold-listed fund, rose 0.8 per cent on Friday to 1082.44 tons-the highest since March 2021. As Ukraine formally rejected the Russian deadline, new safe-haven funds entered the gold market.

But two of the Fed's most hawkish policymakers said on Friday that the Fed needed to take more aggressive measures to fight inflation. Their comments hampered the rise in gold prices. The Fed is expected to raise interest rates five times in 2023 and is expected to be eager to raise the federal funds rate above the current neutral range.

Minneapolis fed chairman Kashkari wrote that he wants to raise interest rates to 1.75% to 2% this year. ". Ask the Fed to take more aggressive action to put policy in a tightening position to bring the economy back to our 2% inflation target. "

St. Louis Fed Chairman Bullard disagrees with the Fed's move to raise interest rates by 25 basis points in March. He said officials should raise the Fed's overnight lending rate to more than 3 per cent this year to keep pace with rising inflation. He also said that not only is he in favor of raising interest rates by 50 basis points in March, but that the Fed needs to raise interest rates by 50 basis points in five of the remaining six meetings this year.

Jan Hatzius, an economist at Goldman Sachs, expects the Federal Open Market Committee ((FOMC)) to raise interest rates at every meeting by the first quarter of 2023 and slow to a quarterly rate in the second quarter of 2023 because of stronger growth prospects and signs that Fed officials are eager to raise the federal funds rate above the expected neutral range.