Sept. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Gold rose the most the in a week on renewed concern that Europe’s debt crisis will threaten economies, boosting demand for a haven.

European finance ministers ruled out efforts to prop up the faltering economy and gave no indication of providing aid for lenders at a meeting today. Before today, gold jumped 25 percent this year, reaching a record $1,923.70 an ounce on Sept. 6, on mounting signs the global economy will slow.

“People realize that the background problems have not disappeared, and the crisis in Europe has not been resolved,” William O’Neill, a partner at Logic Advisors in Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, said in a telephone interview.

Gold futures for December delivery rose $35.20, or 2 percent, to $1,816.60 on the Comex at 12:18 p.m. in New York. A close at that price would be the biggest gain since Sept. 8.

Prices are still heading for a weekly drop of 2.3 percent. Yesterday, the European Central Bank said it will coordinate with other central banks to ensure euro-area lenders have enough dollars.

“We view the latest correction in gold as temporary,” Michael Lewis, the head of commodities research at Deutsche Bank AG in London, said in a report today. Prices “will keep on rising in an environment where concerns toward the global banking system remain.”

Eighteen months of crisis-fighting and 256 billion euros ($352 billion) in aid for Greece, Ireland and Portugal have failed to stabilize markets as the turmoil spread to Italy and Spain.

“They’re only really geared to put out spot fires and play brinkmanship, rather than to deliver a killer package that will actually resolve all their issues,” Tom Price, an analyst at UBS AG, said by telephone from Sydney. “In that environment, the problem drags on for years, not months, and it’s a great environment for gold.”

Silver futures for December delivery rose $1.389, or 3.5 percent, to $40.89 an ounce on the Comex. Prices are still heading for the second straight weekly loss.

--With assistance from Phoebe Sedgman in Melbourne. Editors: Millie Munshi, Daniel Enoch

To contact the reporters on this story: Nicholas Larkin in London at nlarkin1@bloomberg.net; Debarati Roy in New York at droy5@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Steve Stroth at sstroth@bloomberg.net

Source: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-09-16/gold-advances-in-new-york-as-european-debt-concerns-spur-demand.html