Gold below $1,200, headed for worst week in 30 years

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Gold fell over 1 percent on Friday to its lowest since August 2010, on persistent worries over the U.S. Federal Reserve's plan to wind down its monetary stimulus.

Bullion, down 15 percent since the beginning of last week, is headed for its worst weekly fall since 1983 and worst quarterly performance since at least 1968.

FUNDAMENTALS

* Spot gold fell 1.1 percent to $1,185.90 an ounce by 0057 GMT, having fallen to a three-year trough of $1,180.71 earlier. U.S. gold fell almost $9 to $1,202.8.

* The metal fell 2 percent on Thursday, as month-end book squaring and relentless liquidation by institutional investors sent bullion prices below $1,200 per ounce for the first time in nearly three years.

* Bullion, down nearly 30 percent this year, has been sliding since Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke laid out a strategy to wind down the bank's $85 billion monthly bond purchases on the back of a recovering economy.

* Two influential Fed policymakers on Thursday sought to dissuade investors that monetary accommodation was fading any time soon, each going so far as to say markets have misinterpreted the U.S. central bank's intentions.

* China's central bank is squeezing funds out of the money market, forcing banks to borrow money at historic interest rate levels, but the manoeuvre appears to have been calculated to have limited impact on the real economy.

* The Indian central bank squeezed gold buyers further on Thursday, ruling out any credit transactions for imports unless they were intended to make jewellery for export, as it looks to rein in a record current account deficit.

(Reporting by A. Ananthalakshmi; Editing by Richard Pullin)