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The inflows into gold-backed exchange-traded funds that helped drive bullion demand sharply higher during the financial crisis have more than halved this year, according to Reuters data, and are unlikely to recover in 2012 as appetite grows for other assets.

Gold prices in India, the world's top buyer, eased tailing soft overseas prices, but not enough to attract buyers in a traditionally lean demand period, dealers said.

Gold prices in India rose for a third straight day to stay above 28,000 rupees per 10 grams for the first time in a week, denting physical demand which has been subdued so far this week, dealers said.

Gold prices rose Tuesday with other commodities and global equities on unexpected signs the U.S. housing market is turning around and continued improvement in the Eurozone.

Gold prices in India, the world's top buyer, edged higher on Tuesday on a weak rupee and recovery in the world market, although the upside further discouraged buying, dealers said.

Gold prices rose more than 1 percent and silver popped nearly 2 percent Tuesday on fresh evidence the struggling U.S. housing industry is recovering plus rising German business sentiment that boosted investors' risk appetite.

Gold prices will fall below $1,500 an ounce over the next three months and are unlikely to retest September's all-time highs until later 2012 at the earliest, according to a Reuters poll of 20 hedge fund managers, economists and traders.

Gold prices hovered in a tight range Monday as doubts that Eurozone banks have enough access to cash and the uncertainties about the severity of the continent's recession offset physical demand from Asian buyers.

Gold prices will fall below $1,500 an ounce over the next three months and are unlikely to retest September's all-time highs until later next year at the earliest, according to a Reuters poll of 20 hedge-fund managers, economists, and traders.

Gold prices extended losses to a fourth session Thursday but the decline was far less than the previous day's plunge as weaker crude oil prices offset support from dollar weakness.

Gold prices Thursday appeared to halt the previous session's big plunge, though prospects they were carving a bottom defied the extent of damage precious metals prices suffered.

Spot gold weakened further on Thursday after dropping 3.5 percent in the previous session, as investors remained nervous about the eurozone debt crisis amid the year-end rush to liquidate positions.

The bottom dropped out of gold prices Friday as technical supports collapsed, hedge fund managers turned holdings into cash and a surging dollar killed any vestige of physical demand.

Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. and its Indonesian union signed a pay deal on Wednesday to end a three-month strike that had paralysed output at the world's second-biggest copper mine, a union official and the company said.

Gold prices fell for a third consecutive day Wednesday -- extending a weeklong plunge to more than 6 percent -- after the U.S. central bank warned that slowing global growth threatens the nation's weak recovery.

Gold prices slipped Tuesday, its seventh consecutive daily decline, to a two-month low as the dollar posted big gains in light trading.

Gold prices tumbled to a six-week low Monday as bank selling and a skyrocketing dollar offset support from central bank buying.

Gold prices fell Thursday as contagion from Europe's sovereign debt crisis began engulfing the continent's once-mighty economies.

Gold prices fell for the third day in a row Wednesday as grim news from Europe offset mildly encouraging economic news from the U.S.

Ghana will seek to boost revenues from its mining industry next year by hiking taxes, according to a text of the 2012 budget delivered to parliament on Wednesday.

Gold extended an earlier slide on Wednesday in its largest one-day fall this month as the escalating euro zone debt crisis kept the euro near one-month lows against the dollar, making it more attractive to non-U.S. investors to sell bullion.

Latin American gold production should increase more than 10 percent this year, Metals Economics Group said Wednesday.

Gold prices regained some early losses Wednesday after the European Central Bank intervened in the bond market to cap dangerously high yields on Italian, Spanish and French bonds.

Rising Chinese purchases of platinum jewelry will boost global demand for the metal to a two-year high in 2011, a British consultancy said Tuesday.

China's autocatalyst palladium demand growth is expected to slow as the auto sector cuts back on buyer incentives, refiner Johnson Matthey said on Tuesday.

Gold prices fell for a second day Tuesday on growing evidence that Europe's two-year sovereign debt crisis is spreading into the continent's core economies.

Gold closed slightly lower Monday as resurgent worries about Europe's finances drove investors to sell stocks and buy dollar-denominated assets, not including gold.

Gold prices fell Monday on tentative optimism the sovereign debts of Italy and Greece can be managed without crashing Europe's banking system.

Gold prices rode a roller-coaster this week, topping a peak midweek when the settled at $1,799.20 before plunging 2.2 percent over the next two days on fears Italy had lost control of its finances and was threatening the Eurozone's survival.