Gold climbed with silver on speculation the European Central Bank may add stimulus to fight the region’s slowing economic growth. ECB President Mario Draghi said he can’t exclude the risk of deflation, fueling speculation the ECB will introduce large-scale quantitative easing, according to an interview with German newspaper Handelsblatt. The euro fell to a four-year low, while the dollar gained versus all of its 16 major peers today. Gold is still seen as “a safe place to hold money,� Gavin Wendt, founder and senior analyst at Mine Life Pty in Sydney, said by phone today. “Although the U.S. economy is performing very strongly, there are still negative patches out there in the world economy.� Bullion for immediate delivery rose 0.4 percent to $1,186.72 an ounce by 10:11 a.m. in London. Gold for February delivery rose 0.2 percent to $1,186.80 in New York, still headed for a third week of losses. Trading volume was 58 percent below 100-day average for this time of day. In a Bloomberg survey of nine traders and analysts, seven were bullish on the price of gold next week. The metal slipped 1.4 percent last year, capping the first back-to-back annual decline since 2000 amid speculation that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates. Holdings in the biggest exchange-traded product backed by the metal contracted to a six-year low. Silver for immediate delivery rose 1.2 percent to $15.859 an ounce, paring a third weekly decline. Platinum and palladium were little changed. To contact the reporters on this story: Laura Clarke in London at lclarke24@bloomberg.net; Jasmine Ng in Singapore at jng299@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Lynn Thomasson at lthomasson@bloomberg.net Nicholas Larkin

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