Silver prices experienced a significant rise during trading on Thursday, driven by strong upward momentum in the precious metals market, marking the white metal's highest levels in over a decade; since the end of 2012.

On the trading front, the price of spot silver contracts rose by 2.0% to record $32.52 per ounce, after climbing to its highest level since December 14, 2012, earlier in the session at $32.71 per ounce. Its gains since the beginning of the year have reached approximately 36.5%, with an increase of over 42% from the same day last year. The prices of silver futures contracts for December delivery also rose by 2.78% to reach $32.91 per ounce on Thursday.

This comes at a time when gold also saw a significant increase, recording a new all-time high for the fifth consecutive day, as prices for spot gold rose today by about 0.85% to reach $2,685.58 per ounce, for the first time ever.

The gains in precious metals were driven by expectations of further interest rate cuts by the U.S. Federal Reserve, as the substantial decline in the dollar helped reduce the cost of holding dollar-denominated assets and increased the demand for them, especially with the decrease in the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding assets amid falling interest rates on U.S. bonds.

It is worth noting that silver is one of the best-performing major commodities this year, and the gains have been supported by the potential for increased industrial usage as China moves to bolster its economy and announced a package of stimulus measures this week, reflecting the significant recovery in flows into silver-backed exchange-traded funds.