Gold Climbs to 18-Month High as Dollar Weakens; Silver Gains

By Halia Pavliva and Claudia Carpenter

Sept. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Gold surged to the highest price since March 2008 and a record close as the dollar extended its longest slide in six months, boosting demand for the metal as a hedge against inflation. Silver reached a 13-month high.

The U.S. Dollar Index, a six-currency gauge of the greenback’s value, has dropped for six consecutive sessions, the longest slump since March, to an 11-month low. Before declining today, crude-oil prices, used by some investors as a gauge of future inflation, jumped 61 percent this year. Gold, which tends to gain when the dollar weakens, has climbed 14 percent in 2009.

“The dollar is going down because of inflation fearsâ€