Hema Malini is still stocking up on gold. What about you?

Bollywood ‘Dream Girl’ Hema Malini thinks gold is still worth a buy.

The timeless 63-year-old also believes there is no reason why the price of gold, up 17 percent this year, should not go up further. “Gold is gold,” she is quoted as saying by the Wall Street Journal newspaper.

She’s not alone in that belief. Gold still glitters for several reputed experts and brokerages. One of those brokerages is Citi, which, in a recent report, said there is a high probability that the macroeconomic and financial factors that propelled gold prices over the past three years will continue to keep prices high for the next 12 to 18 months.

[caption id=“attachment_110213” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Indian actress Hema Malini poses during a portrait session. Kristian Dowling/Getty Images”]  [/caption]

The price of gold, which averaged $1,220 per troy ounce in 2010, is forecast to average $1,575 in 2011 and $1,950 in 2012 by the brokerage.

More from Investing

MSMEs are breaking the traditional convention. Look who’s funding them Scale-up your startup without an investor! Here’s how

Gold has been among the best performing asset classes of the decade, with a compounded annual growth rate of 13.2 percent from 2000 to 2008, which jumped to an even higher 25.5 percent in the past three years.

What’s more, gold has consistently outperformed other traditional asset classes such as developed and emerging market equities, according to Citi.

In India, of course, most of us don’t need much convincing on the merits of gold. Indians are the biggest consumers of gold, shopping for about 800 tonnes of gold every year, mostly for jewellery. Even with local prices at a steep Rs 26,800 per 10 grams, with festival season in full swing, demand for the shiny metal is expected to remain relatively buoyant.

Indeed, some experts believe demand will pick up pace around Diwali. Dhanteras, which falls on October 24, is considered an especially auspicious time to buy gold.