How high inflation impacts gold
When prices rise fast, cash and bonds lose buying power, so gold, which pays no interest, costs less to hold by comparison.
In the 151 months since 1971 when U.S. CPI inflation ran at 5% or more, gold compounded +11.3% a year, against +8.9% across all months.
Most of that came from one long stretch, Jan 1977 to Oct 1982, when gold rose about 215%.
Silver did not follow: +3.9% a year in the same months, behind its own +6.9% pace.
An explainer from the chart's Learn library. What the record did, not a forecast.
Updated Oct 2026 · record through Oct 2026