Wealthy in Switzerland, Austria and Germany lining up to buy the gold 'C...

Private investors in Switzerland, Austria and Germany the right lines to buy gold bars size of a credit card that can be simply divided into pieces of 1 gram and used to pay in case of emergency. Now Swiss "refinery" Valcambi, part of U.S. mining giant Newmont, wants to introduce its "CombiBar" on the U.S. market and boost commercial presence in India, the world's biggest consumer of gold where it is long been used as a parallel currency. Investors are worried that inflation and turmoil in financial markets destroy the value of their cash, and spend large amounts of money in gold over the past 10 years. Compared to the year 2001 the price increased almost 500%, compared with an increase of 12% in the MSCI World index (world equity index). In 2011-the year to sell our gold bars and coins in the amount of nearly 77 billion dollars. 2002nd year to sell only 3.5 billion dollars. These are the figures of the International Council for the gold.
"The rich are buying standard levers or has deposits of physical gold. People have less money to buy 100 grams," said Michael Mesaric, the first man Valcambija. "But for many typically invest in a product is not enough. They want to be able to do something with the metal." Mesaric said that the advantage of "CombiBara" - which they called "chocolate bar" because the pieces can be easily separated by hand in squares of 1 gram - that it can be easily transported and is less expensive than buying 50 plates of 1 gram.
"The product can also be used as an alternative method of payment," he said. Valcambi build a sales network in India and plans to launch CombiBar the U.S. market next year. As for Japan, the hope is that the focus is on CombiBaru of platinum and palladium. Demand is particularly high among Germans who still remember the hyperinflation after World War II. Then, money has become almost worthless and they needed carts for transporting material, full of money to buy bread and basic necessities. "Most people aged between 40 and 70 years of investing in gold bullion and coins," said Mesaric. "You have heard the stories from his parents about the wars and crises that reduce the value of money." CombiBar is especially popular among grandparents who want to give their grandchildren a piece of gold instead of coins, said Andreas Habluetzel, the first Swiss man business of Degussa, a company that traded gold. Other customers buying gold for safety. "Demand is growing every week," said Habluetzel. "Especially in Germany. People are buying gold because they fear that the euro will fall apart, or that banks will have problems." But some fund managers are skeptical. Stephan Mueller, who managed gold fund Julius Baer Bank in the amount of $ 6 billion, says the problem with gold as a means of payment that many people have to accept its value for granted. "Gold is useful to maintain value," said Mueller. "But I doubt that it will succeed as a means of payment." While the eurozone crisis after another, the demand for gold, which may be sold in vending machines are also growing. "Sales growth in line with the worsening of the crisis," said Thomas Geissler whose company Ex Oriente Lux 17 camera manages to sell gold in Europe, USA and UAE. How the market reacts customers, shown by the fact that the cameras recorded record sales in 2010-the year, just one day after he was the first man of Deutsche Bank Josef Ackermann said he doubts whether Greece will be able to repay the debt. Since when installed appliances that operate under the name "Gold to take out", 50,000 customers have purchased gold worth more than 21 million euros. Average customer is a man over fifty years old, rich. "Customers are accumulating gold as a deterrent against most of the crisis, just as their fathers and grandfathers did before them," said Geissler.