<span>Gold prices climbed above the $1,500 </span><span>mark to six-year </span> highs on Tuesday as investors concerned about the state of the global economy sought a safe haven as an asset. <span>The spot gold price </span><span>rose as high as $1,526.95 </span>per troy ounce at 3.05pm in the UAE on Tuesday, reaching a record since April 2013. <span>Spot gold is </span><span>up 19 per cent this year-to-date</span> <span>Inflows into gold assets reached $1.7 billion last week, said Adam Perlaky, a manager of investment research at the World Gold Council.</span> <span>“There have been $2.5bn of inflows so far in August,” Mr Perlaky said in a blog post on Monday. “Year-to-date flows surpassed $10bn last week as assets in global gold-backed ETFs [exchange-traded funds] have grown 8 per cent this year,” he said.</span> <span>The recent wave of buying by investors meant that gold prices were now at all-time highs in more than 20 countries, driven by continued low interest rates, said Mr Perlaky.</span> <span>Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank, said a “renewed race to the bottom in global yields as major central banks return to easing mode” has been the main driver behind the rise in gold prices.</span> <span>“The drop in global bond yields has resulted in close to $16 trillion worth of bonds now yielding less than zero. This development, and worries about the impact on global stocks from the US-China trade war increasing the risk to the global economy, has created a very friendly investment environment for gold,” he said.</span> <span>Hussein Sayed, a chief markets strategist at foreign exchange broker FXTM in Dubai, said demand for treasury bonds were nearing record highs.</span> <span>"There is a kind of bubble being created in bond markets, much more than is happening in equity markets," he told </span><span><em>The National</em></span><span>. </span> <span>Mr Sayed said that as long as investors continue to insure against geopolitical risks and the interest rate environment remains benign, gold prices should continue to rise. </span> <span>“At the beginning of the year, I was expecting gold to end up in the range of $1,450 to $1,500, but now probably it can shoot above even $1,600 easily,” he said.</span> <span>On futures markets, the net position of long gold contracts to those shorting the market neared all-time highs at 1,078 tonnes last week, </span><span>said Mr Perkaly. </span> <span>Trading volumes were also significantly higher at $213bn per day – an 87 per cent increase on last year’s daily average.</span> <span>Samson Li, a senior metals analyst at Refinitiv, told </span><span><em>The National</em></span><span> he expects gold prices in the short term to retreat as traders take profits.</span> <span>“The price has shot up by over 16 per cent in less than three months. That is a very lucrative return, especially considering that people use leverage in the futures market. Those who longed gold early are bound to take some profits off the table,” he said.</span> <span>However, Gerhard Schubert, founder of </span>Schubert Commodities Consultancy <span>in Dubai, said that over the long term, prices are likely to continue rising as central banks continue to buy gold to reduce their exposure to the US dollar.</span> <span>A report by the World Gold Council earlier this month said that in the first half of this year, central banks bought 374.1 tonnes of gold – a 57 per cent year-on-year increase and the highest amount since </span><span>exchequers became net buyers of gold in 2010.</span> <span>Mr Schubert said </span><span>the difference between central bank buyers and other investors such as hedge funds is that the former are buying gold and holding it – effectively removing it from the market.</span> <span>“They are not hedge funds –they do not sell it when it goes $100 higher,” he said.</span>