Russia’s exports of rough diamonds in the fourth quarter of 2015 decreased by 29.9% compared to the same period of 2014, reaching 7.556 million carats, while the country’s imports grew by 61.7% to 16,870 carats, as it follows from the materials published by the Ministry of Finance.

In value terms, exports fell by 38.6% to $ 727.043 million, while imports increased by 18.5% to $ 41.794 million.

Almost 68% of total diamond exports were delivered to Belgium – 5.126 million carats (down 23%) for the amount of $ 410.325 million (down 42%). Other prominent buyers of Russian diamonds were India, which acquired 1.281 million carats (down 26%) for the amount of $ 139.247 million (down 14.5%), and the UAE, which purchases 611,142 carats (down 7.8%) for the amount of $ 43.974 million (down 27.8%).

In the fourth quarter of 2015, the largest volume of diamonds was brought to the Russian market from Belarus – 5,624 carats (increasing 17.4 times y-o-y) worth $ 1.597 million (increasing 5.3 times y-o-y). Russia’s imports from the UAE were 3,298 carats (increasing 1.9 times y-o-y) for the amount of $ 11.431 million (increasing 2.2 times y-o-y).