When we are trying to predict how far the price of gold can drop, we have to look at the average cost of gold's production.
I do not agree with the argument that Mark Carney`s main aim is to weaken the Pound. His main goal is to fulfil his mandate of price stability with perhaps slightly more focus on improving underlying growth.
Obviously, it increases discussions in the market whether the Fed can really move along tapering so far as Mr. Bernanke put ahead.
We actually believe that it is quite likely that the Dollar appreciation is not a result of the financial market stress, but actually due to the cyclical factors as that U.S. rate are increasing and there is a potential of QE tapering starting later this year.
We still see room for a further rate cut as the Australian economy is still quite soft, labour market indicators, in particular, seem to continue to indicate some pressure on the unemployment rate, whereas inflation appears to be very well contained allowing room for more stimulus to be put in the economy by the RBA.
I believe Europe can expect a slow recovery and a gradual improvement over the coming weeks. On the other hand, there is a wide concern that recent floods in Germany can hit its growth once again.
However, the OPEC will continue to be a significant player at least until the end of 2013, while in 2014 and beyond the importance of the organization will decrease. At the last meeting in Vienna, a decision was made to keep the OPEC output unchanged till December.
I believe that the U.S growth picture is much more secure than most of us think.
Not only it has deteriorated, it is still deteriorating. That is particularly true in the Northern Europe, in the core countries like Germany etc. Nevertheless, the situation might begin to improve in some of the Southern European counties, but if we consider the Eurozone as a whole, the situation is certainly worsening.
I believe that there is a decent possibility of the Australian Dollar falling further.
As a matter of fact things are getting somewhat better.
I believe that it is a combination of both. There are some economic issues that lead to the Eurozone crisis in the sense that private debt in some countries, and especially in peripheral countries like Spain and Ireland, either exploded or rose very substantially after the start of the monetary union.
I do not think there would be many reforms overtaken from Canada, as they have not experienced the same kind of problems as the U.K has. In fact, the Canadian economy is being more resilient and stronger.
One of the main drivers for the recent Yen decline is the on-going easing by the Bank of Japan, and determination of the central bankers and the government to hit 2% inflation target in 2-year time means that the BOJ is now buying a lot of bonds and printing money.
Throughout this year I doubt that it will be the case, since the Sterling is not going to strengthen on the back of improvements in the nation's economy alone.
I believe this is not going to have a huge impact on the overall economy, as interest rates were already relatively low.
I do not think that it should be a concern. Although, it is a technical definition of the bear market, I do not see gold in the bear market as yet.
The phrase "High-frequency trading" is a vague catchall term that has been applied to anyone using a fast computer.
To my mind, the United Kingdom is probably in a middle of stagnant activity with a little growth.
In recent years silver prices have been following gold prices quite closely. During last 5 years silver prices have moved in the same direction as gold, though more sharply.
Actually, we do not think that the European Central Bank will cut the repo rate.
Germany is not a burden at all when it comes to a current account surplus. Actually, much of the surplus is coming from outside of the Eurozone, thus this is definitely a beneficial inflow into Europe. Germany's strict approach to monetary policy may be a burden, but their CA surplus is not.
We believe that in a very short run a bounce is possible, whereas in the medium risks are still on the downside.
We do not consider this outcome to be realistic. The previous bailout package for peripheral countries like Greece, Portugal and Ireland has mainly conveyed that the Eurozone is willing to stay intact. We consider the Eurozone breakup risk to be very minimal as the ECB with its OMT announcement still has its effect on keeping the market calm.