The price of gold has been more temperamental than a thermometer over the course of the last year.
At the beginning of 2013, it was selling at around $1,700 an ounce, then tipped down to a low of about $1,200 in June.
Only two months later, it rallied to more than $1,400 in August. Demand from buyers during September and again in October built gradually, while at the same time the price in November has dropped to US$1,312 on Tuesday.
"With world stock markets now at five-year highs, average monthly gold prices have fallen in 10 of the last 12 months. That's something not seen since the bull market began in early 2001," said a spokesperson for Bullion Vault, the largest online market for buying physical bullion.
Gold’s status as a “safe haven” is well known. Investors have been buying gold now out of fear that the mass printing of money during the debt crisis could eventually create a currency crisis. If this should happen, more people will want to buy gold, forcing prices up.
Demand for gold has steadily risen since 2000, fuelled in large part by emerging countries purchasing bullion. The continued popularity of gold jewellery, particularly in India, has added to demand.
When Gordon Brown sold much of Britain's gold reserves – 400 tonnes – in 1999 the price was between $256 and $296 an ounce. It then rocketed, eventually reaching a high of $1,895 in 2011.
