Continued easing by central banks around the world could push gold prices to a new record high next year, says Jeremy Friesen, a commodity strategist at Societe Generale.

The precious metal reached a record peak above $1,900 an ounce in August, but has since dropped 10 percent. Friesen predicts gold will resume its rise and may well hit $2,000 next year. It traded at about $1,750 Wednesday.

“We like gold,” he tells CNBC.
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“The monetary policy is likely to get increasingly aggressive. The European Central Bank is likely to do some sort of massive bond purchase in early 2012. That should be really good for all commodities, and gold should be at the knife’s edge of that move.”

(Getty Images photo)

Gold will likely remain volatile for the rest of this year, before rising in earnest, Friesen says.

“Going forward, the euro and dollar don’t look particularly good, and that should be longer-term bullish for gold,” he says.

“And once the market starts to really be convinced that the ECB and other central banks will be aggressive going into 2012, that should be a real lift for gold prices.”

Many investors share Friesen’s bullishness toward gold. Michael Cuggino, manager of Permanent Portfolio mutual fund, is one of them.

“There's still a focus on looser monetary policy by central banks here and around the world,” he tells Money magazine. “That's keeping real interest rates low to negative, always a bullish sign for gold.”