International gold prices fell on Friday, and as the war entered its fourth week, the advance of Russian troops in Ukrainian cities appeared to have stalled, and the demand for safe haven triggered by the war between Russia and Ukraine weakened. However, the OECD issued a new warning on inflation, and gold prices continued to be bullish in the future.
At 1540 Beijing time, spot gold fell 0.48 per cent to $1932.90 per ounce; the main COMEX gold contract fell 0.45 per cent to $1934.3 per ounce; and the dollar index rose 0.14 per cent to 98.153.
Matt Simpson, senior market analyst at City Index, said: "the situation in Ukraine is not as tense as it used to be, so anxiety has not really pushed gold up as a safe haven."
The Kremlin said on Thursday that Russia was devoting "tremendous" energy to negotiating a possible peace agreement with Ukraine, but that Kiev did not have such "enthusiasm" and that an agreement had not yet been reached.
The Bank of England raised interest rates again this week to prevent rapidly rising inflation from becoming entrenched, but softened its language on the need for further rate increases as households faced a huge blow from soaring energy costs.
Germany's economic growth in 2022 will be lower than previously expected as the shock waves of the war in Ukraine weakened the boost from the relaxation of novel coronavirus's epidemic restrictions and the easing of supply bottlenecks, according to Germany's three major economic forecasters.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development ((OECD)) estimated on Thursday that the crisis in Ukraine could reduce global economic growth by more than 1 percentage point and increase inflation by 2.5 percentage points this year. OECD also called for a targeted increase in government spending to respond.
In analyzing the economic consequences of the war between Russia and Ukraine, OECD estimated that because Europe is strongly dependent on Russian energy imports, the negative impact of the war on the euro zone economy may be as high as 1.4%, while the impact on the United States may be as high as 0.9%.
