(IDEX Online) - India's gem and jewelry exports could fall by as much as 15 per cent this year as demand from key markets remains slow."We expect that overall we should see a 10 to 15 per cent decline in the gems and jewellery exports," Vipul Shah (pictured), chairman of the Gems and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) told reporters last week."For gems and jewellery, the major contributing market is the US and China, the demand is slowing there. Rising interest cost, inflation, all these concerns and consumers' confidence is also going down," he said.Exports of polished diamonds, which account for just over half of India's gem and jewelry foreign sales, were down by over 31 per cent year-on-year in June.The Ministry of Commerce's target for all gem and jewelry exports the current financial year, ending March 2024, is $42bn. The GJEPC's figure for April to June 2023 is $7.2bn.