Gems, jewellery exports decline in May

July 01, 2012 11:52 am | Updated 11:52 am IST - New Delhi

A girl shows the gems and jewellery at a Trade fair in Guwahati. File photo: Ritu Raj Konwar

A girl shows the gems and jewellery at a Trade fair in Guwahati. File photo: Ritu Raj Konwar

Gems and jewellery exports declined by 12 per cent year-on-year to $ 3.2 billion in May on account of weak demand in major markets like Europe.

The exports stood at $3.7 billion in the same period last fiscal, according to the data provided by the Gems and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC).

“The demand is sluggish in traditional markets like Europe,” GJEPC Chairman Rajiv Jain said.

He, however, added the U.S. market is picking up now.

The major markets for the country’s jewellery include Europe, the U.S., the UAE and Hong Kong.

Jain said another reason for drop in these exports was the imposition of two per cent customs duty on imports of cut and polished diamonds in the budget which affected the country’s diamond trading activities.

“Cut and polished diamonds were imported in a large quantity as there was no customs duty earlier. After the imposition of the duty these imports declined and led to a slowdown in trading of diamonds,” he said.

After levying of the duty, the country’s imports of cut and polished diamonds nosedived 82 per cent year-on-year to $ 549 million in April-May this fiscal.

Exports of polished diamonds declined by about 40 per cent year-on-year to $ 2.5 billion during the period.

During April-May, the overall gems and jewellery exports dropped about 16 per cent to $5.8 billion compared to the same period last year.

They remained flat at about $43 billion in 2011-12 compared to the previous fiscal.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.