Long-term, gold is quite a good hedge against inflation, but actually that is due to a combination of long periods of decline against inflation, plus shor periods of rapid rise. So, most of the time, gold is actually declining relative to inflation. Therefore, if your time horizon is short, gold is a terribly good hedge against inflation.
Gold is generally seen as a good hedge in times of uncertainty, but "inflation" and "uncertainty" are not the same thing.
The best hedge against inflation in the short term is generally reckoned to be a balanced portfolio of equities. (Why? Because corporate earnings tend to rise in time of inflation — the products they sell go for higher prices. That's literally what inflation means. And the price of equites generally represents the markets expectation of their future earnings.) But, as people have rightly emphasised over and over again in this thread, there is no guarantee.
Some governments do issue index-linked bonds, on which either the interest paid or the capital repaid or both are indexed to inflation. These can be worth a look, but they are quite inflexible. I think you generally have to hold them to maturity in order to get the full benefit of the inflation guarantee.
Gold is generally seen as a good hedge in times of uncertainty, but "inflation" and "uncertainty" are not the same thing.
The best hedge against inflation in the short term is generally reckoned to be a balanced portfolio of equities. (Why? Because corporate earnings tend to rise in time of inflation — the products they sell go for higher prices. That's literally what inflation means. And the price of equites generally represents the markets expectation of their future earnings.) But, as people have rightly emphasised over and over again in this thread, there is no guarantee.
Some governments do issue index-linked bonds, on which either the interest paid or the capital repaid or both are indexed to inflation. These can be worth a look, but they are quite inflexible. I think you generally have to hold them to maturity in order to get the full benefit of the inflation guarantee.