Gold prices continue to trade bullish, close to the highest levels in seven years over continued demand for safe haven assets in global markets over concerns about the economic fallout from the coronavirus outbreak. At the time of writing, GOLD is trading at a little above $1,624.

Even as the number of infected cases from China continue to climb higher after a slight dip over the past few days, markets worried about the outbreak spreading outside of China after South Korea confirmed a total of 156 cases of infection. The safe haven appeal of gold remained in favour after the IMF warned that further spreading of the virus could derail any possibility of recovery for the global economy in 2020, which continues to exhibit signs of weakness on account of last year’s trade tensions.

Despite China unveiling more measures to stimulate its economy by cutting its benchmark lending rate in the previous session, the yellow metal prices continue to trade strong as markets worry about possible weakness in China’s economic growth. Markets also remain concerned about China being unable to honour commitments to the phase one trade deal that was signed in January which could possibly prolong the trade war with the US.