India’s gem and jewellery exports in December 2015 dropped 5.63 percent on y-o-y basis to US$ 2.06 billion, from US$ 2.18 billion in December 2014, as per reports. Within this, exports of cut and polished diamonds slipped 17.1 percent to US$ 1.20 billion (December 2014: US$ 1.45 billion), which is being attributed to the declining trend in global diamond markets. Gold jewellery exports took an upswing of 27.74 percent to US$ 560.61 million (US$ 438.86 million in December 2014), reports add.

Silver jewellery exports stood flat at US$ 147.33 million (it was US$ 148.0 million in December 2014).

Imports of rough diamonds stood at US$ 1.46 billion, increasing 2.44 percent in value terms (US$ 1.43 billion in December 2014), and 6.98 percent in volume to 15.04 million carats (14.06 million carats during December 2014). Cut and polished diamonds dropped to US$ 239.03 million (US$ 441.56 million in December 2014).

Coloured gemstone sector growth took a downward trend dropping 23.9 percent with total exports worth US$ 15.76 million in December 2015 from US$ 20.71 million in the same month of 2014.