Gold Prices hit all-time high of $1,040 per ounce

Gold Prices rose to an all-time high today (October 6th) as the continued slide in the dollar saw investors desperately searching for alternative routes for their money.

The yellow metal reached $1,040 per ounce after a report in the Independent suggested that concerns among Gulf nations could see the greenback lose its status as the world's main oil currency.

Adrian Ash, head of research at UK gold brokerage BullionVault, explained that Investing in Gold is providing a store of wealth in the current economic climate.

"The bottom line is that after Northern Rock and the wider crisis in the financial markets, more and more people really started to move into gold," he told the BBC.

"Gold is a physical investment, they own it outright, so they are not exposed to any bank's financial survival. Now a lot of investors are buying gold because they are concerned about the impact of higher inflation."

Meanwhile, investors with money in gold received a boost last week after Bundesbank revealed that it will only sell 6.5 tonnes of the metal to the German Finance Ministry in the next 12 months.

The German institution, which has the world's second-largest gold reserves at 3,408 tonnes - with a market value of $100 billion - was responding to the recent agreement between central banks.

In a statement seen by Reuters, it said: "The Bundesbank will not make further use of its option to sell, to which it is entitled in the first year of the new gold agreement.

"The remaining selling rights will be offered to the other central banks participating in the gold agreement in exchange for future selling rights, or to the International Monetary Fund."

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