Global banks predict gold prices will stay high in 2025, potentially reaching $3,000 due to geopolitical uncertainty, while Goldman Sachs revised its price target upwards citing sustained central bank demand.
Goldman Sachs raised its year-end 2025 gold price forecast to $3,100 per ounce, up from $2,890 previously.
Spot gold gained Tuesday after hitting a record high at $2,942.70 per ounce on February 11. Bullion has hit eight record highs so far this year, and is up 11% so far on an annual basis.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s aggressive trade policies is one of the key reasons behind gold's recent rally, along with increased central bank appetite for the safe-haven asset.
"We estimate that structurally higher central bank demand will add 9% to the gold price by year-end, which, combined with a gradual boost to ETF (exchange traded funds) holdings as the funds rate declines, should outweigh the drag from normalizing positioning, assuming uncertainty diminishes," Goldman Sachs said.
"However, if policy uncertainty--including tariff fears--stays high, higher speculative positioning for longer could push gold prices as high as $3,300/toz by year-end," Goldman added.
The bank also revised its central bank demand assumption upward to 50 tons per month from the previous estimate of 41 tonnes.
Meanwhile, data from the World Gold Council showed global gold demand rose 1% to a record 4,974.5 metric tons in 2024. Earlier this month, Citi revised its near-term (0-3 months) price target for gold up to $3,000 per ounce from $2,800.
"Ongoing tariff uncertainty could take near-term prices a bit higher in our view, likely surpassing $3,000/oz but not all the way to our bull case of around $3,400/oz," Morgan Stanley said in a note dated Friday.