According to the forecast of London Bullion Market Association for 2022, analysts have moderated their enthusiasm after disappointing gold results last year.
This week, the LBMA published the results of its annual predictive research. The 34 analysts who took part in this year's survey responded that gold prices will remain relatively stable, averaging around $1,801.90 an ounce in 2022, which is almost unchanged from last year's average price of $1,798.60 an ounce.
Assuming that the average price will be really relatively stable, analysts believe that the potential for price fluctuation will be within the range of $780.
According to the report, economists are looking at three factors that will affect gold this year: higher interest rates, a growing threat of inflation, and higher market volatility.
Degussa Chief Economist Torsten Polleit is very optimistic about gold, believing that its potential growth could reach $2,280 an ounce since he is unsure that the Fed will be able to keep inflation under control.
However, Bernard Dahdah, Natixis precious metals analyst, was negative about gold's rise, saying that gold prices could decline to $1,630 an ounce. He expects the Fed to still try to normalize inflation by raising interest rates, although inflation may remain relatively high.
Bernard Dahdah also shows pessimism towards silver, believing prices will average around $23.54 an ounce for the year, which is 6% below the 2021 average of $25.14 an ounce.
However, Sharps Pixley's analyst disagrees with Bernard Dahdah, as he thinks that silver prices will rise to $30 an ounce this year.
Precious metals analyst at Bank of China, Yufei Liu, is also on the bearish side of silver, believing that the precious metal will drop to $17.20 an ounce.
Meanwhile, some analysts do not see much potential for platinum with a projected average price of $1,063.40 an ounce, that is, 2.5% below the 2021 average of $1,090.20 an ounce.
But HSBC's precious metals analyst, James Steel, sees the biggest potential for platinum, with a high of $1,174. He is convinced that there will be no shortage of platinum during this year, which is predicted by 2023/24.
Frank Shallenberger, LBBW Head of Commodity Research, expects platinum prices to drop to $771 an ounce based on fundamental factors.
However, some analysts are more bullish on palladium than on platinum, assuming annual average prices of around $1,967.60 per ounce, or 18% below the 2021 average of $2,398.30 per ounce.
Philip Klapwijk, a precious metals analyst at Precious Metals Insights, predicts this metal to rise to $2,800 an ounce, whereas Frank Shallenberger has the opposite attitude to palladium with a price forecast of $1,313 per ounce.