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Mint gold sales in Austria up 45 pct year-on-year in 2015

Xinhua, January 27, 2016 Adjust font size:

Gold demand in Austria has seen a strong increase in 2015, with Austrian Mint sales of 1.32 million ounces, a 45 percent increase over the previous year.

CEO Gerhard Starsich told Die Presse newspaper in an interview that while the 910,000 ounces sold in 2014 represented the lowest amount since the financial crisis, the 2015 sales were the fifth-highest in its history.

Sales in the months of July and December were particularly high. The mint sold over 200,000 ounces of the precious metal in both months.

Its Vienna Philharmonic one ounce coins were most in demand for the year, with sales increasing by 60 percent over 2014.

Die Presse stated that the largest non-bank-affiliated precious metals trader in the German-speaking countries, Pro Aurum, also recorded a significant 2015 sales increase in gold of 25 percent, while its silver sales also increased 17 percent.

The increased sales also follow a continual drop in the price of gold since a peak in 2011 of over 1,900 U.S. dollars per ounce.

The report said the reasons for a return in interest to gold as a safe haven are low oil prices and bad signals from stock markets. Some economists are also anticipating further monetary easing by the European Central Bank, which could also lead to gold becoming a more attractive investment. Enditem