Gold hit new highs in more than seven years after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicts steep global recession due to the great lockdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The expectations now are that the global economy will shrink by 3 per cent in 2020, which worse than the 0.1 per cent GDP fall seen during the Global Financial crisis of 2009 and the Great Depression of the 1930s, the IMF has said. For the year 2021, the economic recovery is priced with 5.8 per cent of the global growth.

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Spot Gold in the international markets was trading at $1,727.59 per ounce, after coming closer to $1,750 in the previous session. Silver, on the other hand, dropped 1.1 per cent to $15.64, while platinum advanced 1.1 per cent to $783.25 an ounce.

Similar trends were seen in the Indian markets as well, where gold has been gaining momentum and crossed the Rs 46,700 level per 10 gram in futures market earlier in the day.

At 14.07 hours gold was at 46,321 at the MCX, up by 0.8 per cent. The yellow metal had opened at Rs 46,445. Previously, it had jumped 1 per cent at the MCX.

In the previous session, the gold had surged over 2 per cent to ₹46,255 per 10 gram, touching a new high of ₹46,385 during the session.

On the other hand, silver plunged by 0.05 per cent during the afternoon trade and hit the mark of Rs 43,733. Earlier in the day, silver futures on Macao gained over 1.4 per cent to Rs 44,350 per kg.