Gold declines on strong Dollar, Fed assessment

Gold prices declined on Friday on stronger dollar in addition to assessing the latest step of the US Federal Reserve which decided previously this week to hike rate by 25 bps to 0.50% for the first time since 2018.

Fed’s chair Jerome Powell said on Wednesday that he expects six more rate hikes in 2022 and inflation rate to reach the peak during the second half of the current year.

It should be noted that US consumer price index (CPI) rose 7.9% in February (Y/Y), the highest 12-month increase since January 1982.

Spot gold prices dropped 0.5%, $9.0 to trade at $1934.2 per ounce by 1447 GMT.