India’s polished-diamond exports slid 39% year on year to $1.17 billion in July amid weak global trading, recent figures from the country’s Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) showed. The country’s negative figures worsened compared with June. Rough imports slid 44% to $1.1 billion, reflecting lower manufacturing levels.

Exports of polished lab-grown diamonds dropped 28% to $105.5 million for the same month, according to GJEPC data.

Sources: Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council, Rapaport archives

About the data: India, the world’s largest diamond-cutting center, is a net importer of rough and a net exporter of polished. As such, net polished exports — representing polished exports minus polished imports — will usually be a positive number. Net rough imports — calculated as rough imports minus rough exports — will also generally be in surplus. The net diamond account is total rough and polished exports minus total imports. It is India’s diamond trade balance, and shows the added value the nation creates by manufacturing rough into polished.

 

Image: A polished diamond at a factory in India. (Shutterstock)