(IDEX Online) - Coronavirus saw India's gem and jewelry exports fall by more than half last month.
Estimates put the total gross figure for March 2020 at $1.5bn, compared with $3.44bn in March 2019, according to the country's Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council. That's a drop of 56.4 per cent.
February figures for the world's cutting and polishing capital were down 41 per cent, from $2.34bn last year to $1.38bn.
Predictions of total exports for 2019-20 (FY20) have been revised down to $35.14 bn, a fall of over 11 per cent on actual FY19 exports.
Overseas sales were already in decline, hit by the economic slowdown, the US-China trade war, and riots in Hong Kong, which represents 40 per cent of India's export market.
Surat's entire diamond industry, in Gujarat state, which employs 550,000 staff, and the Bharat Diamond Bourse, in Mumbai, have closed because of Covi-19 lockdowns.