Top fund manager sticks to gold price prediction

AAA-rated star US equity manager Francois Moute announced yesterday (August 19th) that he is standing by his gold price prediction for the coming 12 months.

Moute, who has a number of gold mining companies in the top ten holdings of his $1 billion ABN AMRO US Opportunities Fund, has forecasted that gold will reach $1,600 per troy ounce in the next year.

Gold prices have cooled in recent weeks after a period of huge growth, but people looking to invest in gold will be boosted by the news that Moute is unmoved in his views.

He told Citywire.co.uk: "I am still using as a basic yardstick the fact that an ounce of gold should be 16 times the price of a barrel of oil.

"So a falling oil price is not that worrisome, as even if oil goes to $100 a barrel, that still does not change my 12-month view of gold reaching $1600 a troy ounce."

His stance appears to be supported by a recent poll by Kitco Bullion Dealers, the Canada-based refinery and metals dealer.

It found that 75 per cent of respondents believe the gold price will be above $1,000 on January 1st, 2009, while a third of those also expect it to rise to between $1,100 and $1,250.

Christopher Wyke, an emerging market debt and commodities product manager at $130.2 billion global asset management company Schroder Investment Management, has made an even bolder prediction, claiming that gold could hit $5,000.