The Vedomosti newspaper reports that banks are short of gold investment bars amid a sharp increase in demand for them on the part of the population.

Andrei Vasiliev, executive director of Uralsib’s precious metals operations department, told the newspaper that there is a shortage of bars because of the limited production capacity of refineries that produce these bars. He explained that earlier gold was mainly bought in bulk by the Bank of Russia or exported abroad, and refineries produced large bars. Smaller bars are more in demand in retail.

Refineries are developing infrastructure to work with individuals, but it takes time to establish business processes, a representative of the Moscow Credit Bank told the publication. The production of small gold bars is a more expensive process, said a representative of VTB. It is cheaper for a factory to make one bar weighing 12 kg than several smaller bars, confirmed Evgeny Safonov, director of the private capital department of Promsvyazbank.

The interest of the population in gold bars increased after the VAT on their purchase (20%) was canceled in March, and in summer – income tax from the sale of gold for 2022-2023. On March 15, due to high demand, the Central Bank suspended the purchase of gold so that banks could meet the demand of the population.