In the morning, gold prices were close to a maximum of two weeks at a time, as investors awaited the European Central Bank decision on interest rates.

After the announcement of the ECB's decision to reduce the key refinancing rate by 25 basis points and Mario Draghi pessimistic comments about the state of the economy the dollar rose sharply and took the gold price down.

Bank of England on Thursday launched the third round of "quantitative easing" by announcing that buys the assets for a further 50 billion pounds, and kept the key interest rate at 0.5 percent per annum, as expected.

On Friday, the U.S. employment report released in June, which could prompt the Fed to new measures to stimulate economic growth. According to the forecasts of economists, the number of jobs in June rose by 90,000, while unemployment remained at 8.2 percent.

Low interest rates are beneficial for gold, not bearing interest, because it reduces the loss of profit from investments in precious metals.

Investment demand for gold has declined in recent months due to economic uncertainty, as investors prefer the U.S. dollar as a safe asset.

The physical demand in India - the world's largest consumer of gold - fell because of the depreciation of the rupee and seasonal downturn.

August gold futures on the COMEX today, went up to 1624.5 dollars per ounce, then fell to 1597.5, and the dollar is currently trading at around 1608.8 dollars per ounce.