Gaborone: De Beers said that diamond prices, which had been weak since the fourth quarter of last year, will recover from the second quarter of the year.

Group chief executive Philippe Mellier was quoted by BusinessDay as saying that rough diamond prices leaped 7 percent last year. He, however, could not make any projections for 2015.

“I definitely see some potential for a price increase this year, but it’s too early to tell,” Mellier said. He said demand had been good in the U.S over the past year end.

“We are quite hopeful for the Chinese New Year and if it is pretty good we will have demand and if there is a price increase it will be higher,” Mellier said

“There is demand. In 2014, while we don’t have the final number, it will be close to 4% which is a bigger increase than the year before.

“We are not talking to a declining market and our final market is still increasing demand by 3% or 4% and that’s what we’re planning for 2015.”

De Beers’ full year production increased by 5 percent to 32.6 million carats in 2014 from 31.2 million carats realized a year earlier.