Polished Diamond Prices Show Slight Decline in August

(IDEX Online News) – In August, the polished diamond price index declined slightly. The Index began the month at 124.8 and ended at 123.5.

The decline last month followed two straight months when diamond prices were largely unchanged, with few fluctuations.

Diamond Price Stability Continues

Polished diamond prices have shown stability and only minimal fluctuations since November. There was a slight increase between May and June, but the trend shows that August returned toward the May level.

The graph of polished diamond prices since January 2013 shows a 6.8-percent decline to-date.

On a month-to-month basis, August's global polished diamond prices saw a decline, registering a 0.8-percent decrease over July.

On a year-over-year basis, August's average price showed a 6.3-percent decrease.

Diamond Prices by Size Decrease

On a month-to-month basis – comparing prices during August 2016 to August 2015 – all major sizes of gemstones showed decreases apart from 4-carat, diamonds which rose by 1.1%.

On a year-over-year basis, all major sizes of stones declined, with 1-carat diamonds down by 4.5 percent in August.

But 3-carat diamonds showed the biggest fall, with an 18.4-percent decrease.

Over the longer term, the general trend is that 4-carat stones have shown the most price volatility, although 3-carat diamonds have displayed the steepest year-over-year decline since mid-2015. Since October, 1-carat 1.5-carat and 2-carat stones have shown relative price stability.

Outlook

The polished market is still in a rather fragile state, and still heavily dependent on the all-important US jewelry market which remains stable. Typically, the summer months are seasonally weak in the Northern Hemisphere, as the world’s major trading centers take their summer vacations.

Evidence provided by diamantaires points to a continuing softness in the Chinese market. The important September Gems and Jewellery Fair in Hong Kong will provide a stronger indication of the state of the market.

We maintain our assessment that it is unlikely that goods of 2-carats and smaller will show significant price improvements until at least the end of the third quarter of this year.