IDEX Polished Price Index Declines More Steeply in July
August 08, 22
(IDEX Online) - The IDEX Polished Price Index declined more markedly during July. It closed down by 2.05 per cent, compared with 1.18 per cent in June and 0.69 per cent in May. The rate of decline appears to be accelerating with each passing month. January and February, by comparison, showed sharp increases, up by 5.67 per cent and 4.14 per cent respectively.
The longer-term graph below shows the Index still in significant decline since it peaked in March. Its average value through July was 147.59, down from June (150.01), May (151.28) and April (153.30) The Index had been gradually declining since mid-2018 to a low point in April 2020, when the first lockdowns hit. The overall trend since then had been upwards.
Month-to-month diamond prices were down 1.6 per cent in July, that's double the 0.8 per cent decline we saw in the previous month. In May and June the price drops appeared to be slowing down after a decline of 2.2 per cent in April, which was the biggest monthly drop for at least four years.
Year-to-year polished diamond prices showed slower growth for a fourth consecutive month in July. Growth has been steadily slowing each month since it peaked in March of this year at 27.9 per cent. The figure for July was 13.7 per cent, down from 17.5 per cent in June and 21.1 per cent in May. The overall trend had been upwards since the depths of the pandemic in April 2020, albeit with a dip last September and October.
Polished month-on-month prices for all key sizes shown below fell during July, down by between 1.2 per cent and 1.9 per cent. There was relatively little difference between how the different sizes performed, unlike in June, when 0.5-cts fell by 1.5 per cent and 3.0-cts actually increased slightly. Price drops for every size shown were greater in July than in June.
Year-on-year polished prices are still increasing, for the most part, but at a slower rate than in previous months. The exception was 0.5-cts, which fell by 0.9 per cent. Increases for most other sizes shown were slightly below those in June. The biggest rises were among 2.0-cts, followed by 1.05-cts.
Prices for all sizes shown below continued their decline in July. They peaked in March after many months of significant increases but fell sharply in April and have carried on falling ever since.
Assessment: The IDEX Polished Price Index is declining steadily, and the monthly rate of decline has now increased to over two per cent. The cumulative effect of the same key factors - war in Ukraine, sanctions on Russia, US inflation and Covid in China - seems to be taking its toll. Weaker demand from consumers is driving down the prices of polished diamonds. Prices remain higher than they were at this time last year, but month by month they are falling, as evidenced by the fact that all goods from 0.50-cts to 4.00-cts fell by at least 1.2 per cent.