The month of March delivered a rise in the value of rough diamond exports and imports for Belgium. The country’s rough diamond imports rose 7 percent (y-o-y) to $1.364 billion, while rough diamond exports were up 8 ‎percent to $1.461 billion.

Although, the country’s net rough imports (valued as excess of rough imports less ‎exports) dropped 26 percent to a deficit worth $97.39 million.‎

Polished diamond exports increased in value by 6 percent (over March 2011) to $1.379 billion. In terms of volume, the country’s polished diamond exports dropped 33 percent to 652,916.33 carats. The average price of the polished diamond exports rose 57 percent to $2,112.73 per carat.

The value of polished diamond imports into Belgium dropped by 3 percent to $1.303 billion.

Net polished ‎exports (valued as excess of exports over imports), stood at a surplus of $76.04 million, rising from a deficit of $34.98 million in March 2011.

The country’s net diamond account in the month (valued as total exports of polished and rough ‎less total imports) was up by more than four times to $173.43 million.‎