Mumbai: 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% 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 Mr. Subodh Rai says, “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 7% across various cuts of polished diamonds in March 2020, which means likely inventory losses.”