Gold is going up because the market expects to maintain soft policy of the Federal Reserve after the meeting this week.

From the beginning, gold prices rose by 9 percent, mainly due to the Fed's stimulus measures. Investors assume that at the meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday, the central bank will announce a new program to purchase government bonds to $ 45 billion per month in return completes the "Operation Twist".

Stocks of gold-ETFs on Friday rose to a record 76.129 million ounces despite the fact that gold prices have stopped growing in recent weeks.

China reported conflicting macroeconomic indicators: industrial production and retail sales rose in November, consumer price inflation has risen from a low of 33 months. However, the growth of Chinese exports in November was much weaker than expected, while imports remained unchanged as compared to last year.

February futures price of gold on COMEX today rose to 1718.80 dollars per ounce.