26 January 2024
Schroders Investment Insights highlights a remarkable trend in the gold market: despite the significant rise in real interest rates in the US over 2022 and 2023, gold prices have remained near all-time highs, currently around US$2000 per ounce. This trend breaks the conventional pattern where gold prices typically fall with rising interest rates and positive real rates on government bonds. Schroders attributes this anomaly to a shift in gold’s behavior post-2008 Global Financial Crisis. Following the crisis, quantitative easing policies and concerns over long-term monetary debasement strengthened gold’s appeal as a monetary asset rather than just a commodity.