IDEX Polished Price Index Suffers Biggest Drop of Current Decline
October 02, 23
(IDEX Online) - Polished diamond prices suffered their single biggest monthly drop of the current decline in September - down by 3.07 per cent.
In addition, after 18 months characterized by near-straight line decreases, we see more volatility, with prices levelling then suddenly dropping again.
The Index is now 30 per cent down on its March 2022 peak, the month after Russia invaded Ukraine.
Increasing lab grown sales, at ever-lower prices, are severely impacting natural diamond sales and prices, together with inflation, rising interest rates and a gloomy outlook for the global economy.
Industry bodies in India last week called for a two-month ban on all rough purchases in a bid to stabilize the market and keep a lid on growing inventories. In a similar vein, Alrosa has halted all sales of rough diamonds, though other miners have not followed suit..
On top of all of that, the Chinese market has failed to bounce back as predicted after its Covid lockdowns and the G7 nations are widely expected to introduce their own sanctions on Russian diamonds, to take effect in the New Year. A G7 delegation visited India last week to see how sanctions could be implemented there with minimum disruption.
The Index remains in steep decline, as it has been for 18 months now. It climbed throughout 2021 as lockdowns diverted luxury spending away from travel towards jewelry, but the Covid bubble burst in March 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine and the Index has been dropping ever since.
Month-to-month prices fell by 3.5 per cent during September, their biggest drop of the current decline. In August they were down 2.6 per cent and in July by 2.9 per cent. The overall rate of decline is increasing.
Year-on-year prices for September hit yet another low, down by 21.2 per cent. That's the biggest monthly drop of the current slowdown. Year-on-year prices have been in decline since April 2022 and have been below zero since December last year.
Polished month-on-month prices suffered yet again in September, down in almost all price categories shown below by more than in August. The exception was 4.0-cts, which increased, but by less than they did last month (3.9 per cent compared to 5.5 per cent). We are now adding 5.0-cts goods to our year-to-year and month-to-month tables.
It was a similar picture for year-to-year prices, with sharper falls in September than August for all price categories from 0.5-cts to 3.0cts. As with the month-to-month prices above, 4.0-cts bucked the trend. They increased in September, after falling slightly in August.
Prices for most sizes shown below kept on falling during September, as they have been for more than a year, with the notable exception of 4.0-cts goods, which have been increasing in recent months.
