Gold prices regained some ground on Friday after falling sharply in the previous session, ahead of key U.S. inflation data that could offer more cues on when interest rate cuts will start.

Spot gold rose 0.3% to $2,370.5 per ounce by 1110 GMT, but was down 1% so far this week. Prices had hit their lowest since July 9 on Thursday after stronger-than-expected U.S. economic growth data.

"That's a bearish factor for gold prices, which tend to fare worse during times of economic strength when other assets perform more positively," said Frank Watson, market analyst at Kinesis Money.

Gold prices are down 4.5% since they hit a record high of $2,483.60 on July 17 on growing optimism of a rate cut from the Federal Reserve in September.

The U.S. personal consumption expenditure data for June - the Fed's favoured measure of inflation - is due at 1230 GMT.

With non-yielding bullion still up 15% so far this year, there are signs high prices and seasonal factors have muted demand in top consumer China.

The country's net gold imports via Hong Kong slumped 18% in June from May, when they had been at their lowest in 10 months. Swiss June gold exports to China fell to the lowest level since May 2022.

However, physical demand in India, another major gold consumer, received a boost from this week's reduction of the state gold import tax to the lowest in 11 years. Gold premiums in India jumped to their highest level in a decade this week.

On the technical front, spot gold price is squeezed between its 21-day and 50-day moving averages at $2,388 and $2,359, respectively.

Spot silver fell 0.9% to $27.73 per ounce under pressure from worsening industrial demand prospects after July's decline in manufacturing activity in Japan and some other countries.

Platinum was down 0.1% at $932.13 and palladium lost 0.4% to $903.02.

(Reporting by Polina Devitt in London; additional reporting by Ashitha Shivaprasad in Bengaluru; Editing by Varun H K and Krishna Chandra Eluri)