Gold 'will break $1,000 by year-end'

Experts are continuing to make predictions of gold returning to its $1,000-an-ounce high in the medium and long-term.

According to analyst David Morgan, gold is likely to end 2008 higher than $1,000, with the fourth quarter of the year set "to be very strong for metals", the Globe and Mail reports.

Meanwhile, an investment strategist with Sprott Asset Management, Charles Oliver, said that the yellow metal could even reach $2,000 an ounce in four years' time.

These forecasts may be grounded in a number of factors that pushed gold bullion to new highs earlier this year - gold mining output is continuing to fall around the world as high costs increasingly squeeze miners and fewer major gold deposits are uncovered, according to GFMS.

The consultancy's Gold Survey 2008 shows that output is declining by 0.4 per cent annually, with Africa seeing its production plunge by 29 tons last year.

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