By Gina Lee

Investing.com – Gold was up on Friday morning in Asia after key central banks tightened their monetary policies at their respective meetings this week.

They were at $1,803.95 (11:14 ET) (4:14 GMT), their highest week since November 2021. On Friday, after the Fed pulled its COVID-19 economic stimulus package, the Fed lowered their COVID-19 index. The gold-like currency moved in an opposite direction to gold.

The central banks have tightened monetary policy to reduce high inflation and are also monitoring the effect of the COVID-19 variant.

In Asia Pacific, the handed down its policy decision earlier in the day, where it at –0.10%. Although it maintained its cautious tone, the could cut emergency COVID-19 funding.

The (BOE) raised its interest rate by 0.25% on Thursday in a surprise move. This was the first time that a central bank of the Group of 7 (G7) has increased interest rates since COVID-19.

The BOE handed down its decision to increase monthly bond buying for half the year while the BOE continued with their regular purchases.

In its Wednesday policy decision, the bank stated that it will speed up its asset-tapping program to $30 million per month. The central banks interest rate was also unchanged. However, they will see three quarter-point increases to their interest rate in 2022, four in 2023 and two in 2024.

U.S. data showed Thursday that 206,000 people were in the country for the week ended December 6, supporting the call for higher interest rates.

The other precious metals saw silver and platinum fall 0.1% each, while palladium increased 1.1%.