This compares with the $660-million of rough diamonds sold in the first sales cycle of 2022 and the $417-million of rough diamonds sold in the tenth sales cycle of 2022.

“Consumer demand for diamond jewellery over the 2022 end-of-year holiday season performed well. As expected, given the macroeconomic outlook at the time, sightholders took a cautious approach in late 2022 in planning their 2023 allocation schedule, with a greater weighting of goods to be purchased as the year progresses.

“While there is still some uncertainty over the macroeconomic environment, we see cautious optimism for demand to increase as China continues to reopen and inflation rates start to decrease in many major economies,” CEO Bruce Cleaver says.