NEW YORK (Commodity Online): The US Federal Open Market Committee has left the monetary policy unchanged and maintained the interest rates near zero giving fillip to gold prices. Earlier there were apprehensions expressed by some quarters that US Federal Reserve may clip the QE wings as some positive signs emerged in the economy.

"The Committee remains concerned that, without sufficient policy accommodation, economic growth might not be strong enough to generate sustained improvement in labor market conditions," the FOMC said in a statement.

"If the outlook for the labor market does not improve substantially, the Committee will continue its purchases of agency mortgage-backed securities, undertake additional asset purchases, and employ its other policy tools as appropriate until such improvement is achieved in a context of price stability." the statement read.

Now, that's a blank cheque for markets and gold prices have appreciated.

Gold on the Comex is up by 0.43% at $1708.75 at 10.13 am IST. Gold on the MCX is up by 0.12% at Rs.30883

“As long as monetary policy remains accommodative, investors are still interested to buy gold,” said Wang Xiaoli, chief investment strategist at CITICS Futures Co., a unit of China’s biggest listed brokerage. “The Fed’s actions were within expectations and already priced into the market.”--Bloomberg reported.