Gold climbed to a record as concern about Europe’s debt woes and a lower dollar boosted demand for the precious metal as an alternative currency. Ireland joined Portugal and Greece yesterday as the third euro-area nation to have its credit rating cut to below investment grade, sending the metal in euros and pounds to the highest-ever levels since yesterday. Concern about default in the euro region, faster inflation and a weakening dollar spurred investors to hold $125.7 billion of assets in exchange- traded products backed by precious metals. Gold “is still going to go for a significant period of time,” Martin Murenbeeld, the chief economist at Toronto- based DundeeWealth Inc., which manages more than $50 billion, said on July 11. “We’re in a very difficult financial period in the world. You have the European situation. The faith in paper currency is rapidly ebbing.” Gold futures for August delivery advanced as much as $17.40, or 1.1 percent, to $1,579.70 an ounce and were at $1,575 by 6:37 a.m. on the Comex in New York. The previous all-time high was set May 2. Immediate-delivery gold climbed as much as $11.03, or 0.7 percent, to $1,578.72 an ounce. To contact the reporter on this story: Nicholas Larkin in London at nlarkin1@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Claudia Carpenter at ccarpenter2@bloomberg.net

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