Investing.com - Gold prices held mostly flat in Asia on Wednesday with investors looking ahead to events in Europe on the euro and Greece.
On the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, gold futures for February delivery traded up 0.02% to $1,293.40 a troy ounce.
Overnight, gold extended gains to trade near the $1,300-level on Tuesday, as investors looked ahead to the European Central Bank's policy meeting later this week to see if it would launch a government bond-buying program.
Also on the Comex, silver futures for March delivery rose 0.09% to trade at $17.978 a troy ounce.
The euro remained under pressure amid mounting expectations that the ECB will embark on an outright quantitative easing program on Thursday, in a bid to stave off the threat of deflation in the euro area.
Uncertainty over the outcome of Greek elections, due to be held on Sunday, with anti-bailout party Syriza leading in the polls further boosted demand for safe haven assets.
Elsewhere in metals trading, copper for March delivery gained 0.05% to trade at $2.593 a pound.
Official data released earlier showed that China’s economy grew 7.4% in 2014 from a year earlier, below the government's official target of 7.5% and the slowest pace since 1990. It expanded 7.7% in 2013.
In the fourth quarter, China's economy expanded at an annual rate of 7.3%, beating expectations for 7.2% and holding steady from the prior quarter.
The Asian nation is the world’s largest copper consumer, accounting for almost 40% of world consumption.
Meanwhile, the International Monetary Fund cut its global growth forecast for 2015 to 3.5% from a previous estimate of 3.8%, citing slowing economies in China, Russia, the euro zone and Japan.