Gold may decline on speculation its advance to the highest level in almost a month because of inflation concern could deter some investors. Immediate-delivery bullion was little changed at $1,373.10 an ounce at 10:10 a.m. in Singapore after gaining as much as 1.1 percent to $1,376.13 an ounce yesterday, the highest level since Jan 19. Gold futures for April delivery were also little changed. “Investors are reluctant to commit aggressively after some gains overnight,” said Chae Un Soo, a Seoul-based trader with KEB Futures Co. “Still, rising inflation and civil unrest” in north Africa and parts of the Middle East means “the uptrend for gold remains intact,” Chae said. Surging food prices have spurred protests as shrinking global food supplies helped push the United Nations Food & Agriculture Organization’s World Food Price Index to a record for a second month in January. China’s inflation accelerated to 4.9 percent in January, exceeding the government’s target for a fourth month, data showed yesterday. India’s benchmark wholesale-price index rose 8.23 percent in January, Indonesia’s inflation is 7 percent and South Korea’s is 4.1 percent, the latest government data show. Assets in gold-backed exchange traded products fell 3.2 metric tons to 2,016.98 metric tons, according to data compiled by Bloomberg from 10 providers. Holdings rose to a record 2,114.6 tons on Dec. 20. Platinum for immediate delivery gained 0.3 percent to $1,835.50 an ounce and spot palladium rose 0.2 percent to $839.25 an ounce. Silver was little changed at $30.7513 an ounce. To contact the reporter on this story: Kyoungwha Kim in Singapore at kkim19@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Poole at jpoole4@bloomberg.net

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