(IDEX Online) - India's diamond polishing revenue is set to plunge next year from $24bn in 2019 to as little as $13bn in fiscal 2021, according to the latest forecasts. That's a drop of almost half to the lowest level in a decade.
Exports to the US and Europe - over 45 per cent of India's market - fell 41 per cent year-on-year in February as the coronavirus pandemic intensified, according to Crisil Ratings, the Mumbai-based global analytical company. And exports to Hong Kong and China fell 79 per cent in February.
Demand probably won't start getting back to normal until September, it predicts, assuming the COVID-19 crisis eases by June.
Senior director Subodh Rai said: "The inventory levels are estimated to have increased 15- 20 per cent over the March quarter. With the pandemic hitting all major global markets, prices fell by an average seven per cent across various cuts of polished diamonds in March 2020, which means likely inventory losses."