The gold price is closer to the buying range, said Gary Dugan, Chief Investment Officer, Private Banking, at Dubai-based Emirates NBD. “Gold has slipped back recently and is getting closer to our $1,600 per ounce target buying price.  The fundamentals in support of gold still stack up, the ongoing printing of money in the United States and the UK and the massive liquidity injection by the European Central Bank in the Euro zone only undermines those currencies; secondly emerging market central banks remain buyers of gold as they seek to diversify their reserves,” said investment banker in a weekly note on Thursday. Bank of America-Merrill Lynch (BofA-ML) commodity analysts Sabine Schels and Michael Widmer said last month that the yellow metal will see a bull run this year with price steadily moving upwards in each quarter and crossing $2,000/oz threshold in the fourth quarter. The analysts have insisted on the strong upside potential for the yellow metal mainly due to quantitative easing (QE) measures by the US Federal Reserve and European Central Bank. Echoing the recent Standard Chartered analysts’ comments, BofA-ML analysts said: “We remain bullish on gold with a 12-month price target of $2,000/oz and see upside for the gold miners.” Standard Chartered analysts also forecast earlier last month that gold price would rally breaking above $2,000/oz at some point in the year ahead.