Demand For Austrian Philharmonic Drops 80% This Year

It's a dramatic figure, but last year's sales of the Austrian Philharmonic bullion coin had a dramatic increase. The financial crisis, and gold's notable performance, helped push up demand for bullion last year. Now that the original crisis has faded, and recovery is in sight, bullion demand has dropped.

“We’re getting back to business as usual rather than the hectic, panic demand we’ve seen over the last couple of years,” Vienna-based Marketing Director Kerry Tattersall said late yesterday in an interview....

“There’s no more upward surge in gold price to titillate buyers,” said Tattersall, who retires this year after more than two decades with the mint. “A lot of people feel more relaxed about the economic crisis.”

An interesting question is how sales have been affected by the Eurocrisis, which has been too recent to have an effect on their figures.