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Belgium's polished diamond exports fall by 6.6 pct year-on-year

Xinhua, April 14, 2015 Adjust font size:

Belgium's polished diamond exports fell by 6.6 percent in March compared to the same time last year, latest figures from the Antwerp World Diamond Centre showed on Monday.

Polished diamond exports for March amounted to 1.2 billion U.S. dollars, or around 535,294 carats, according to the diamond market website diamonds.net. Imports rose to around 24 percent, or 1.8 billion dollars.

This leaves a net export deficit of 580.2 million dollars in March 2015, compared with a deficit of 138.9 million dollars in March 2014.

Rough diamond imports rose by 4.5 percent to 1.4 billion dollars, while rough diamond exports fell by 4.9 percent to 1.3 billion dollars, leaving a net deficit of 97.7 million dollars compared with 30.2 million dollars twelve months ago.

Belgium recorded a net diamond deficit of 677.9 million dollars during the month compared with a deficit of 108.7 million in March 2014.

In the first quarter of 2015, polished diamond exports fell by almost 3.0 percent, while imports rose by 7.5 percent. In the same period, rough diamond exports dropped by 20.5 percent, while imports dropped by 19 percent.

In total, Belgium's net diamond account for the first quarter of 2015 dropped to a deficit of 189.9 million dollars compared with 253.2 million dollars at the same time in 2014. Endite