MONTHLY DEMAND FOR STANDARD BANK GOLD BARS IN ARMENIA IS 0.5 TONS
Arminfo
2007-03-28 10:22:00
The monthly demand for standard bank gold bars in Armenia is 0.5 tons,
says the director of the Dealing Center of Ararat David Haroutyunyan.
Over 50% of the demand is satisfied by Ararat Bank, who supplies 12.5
kg gold bars from Europe (Austria and Switzerland) every week. There
is also demand for smaller bars but it is constrained by VAT taxation
and consequent high price.
Haroutyunyan says that the price of gold at Ararat Bank complies with
London Gold Exchange quotations. For example, today the price is $664
per ounce, while in Nov 2006, when the bank first started operations
with gold bars, it was $620. In the last three years the world gold
price has almost redoubled and the factor of speculations has become
decisive. Haroutyunyan says that the price will continue to grow.
Before the advent of Ararat Bank, only two banks sold gold bars in
Armenia – VTB and Unibank. According to the Ranking of the Commercial
Banks of Armenia by the Agency of Rating Marketing Information
(ArmInfo), the volume of the gold bar operations carried out by the
above two banks in 2006 totalled 307.8mln AMD ($847,000), which is
almost 8 times as much as in 2005.