Overall gross imports of gems and jewellery in the same month grew 14% year-on-year to $1822.89 million, reflecting the uptick in manufacturing activity and improving retail demand.

During the April 2020 to January 2021 period, India’s overall gross exports of gems and jewellery fell 37% to $19240.61 million compared to the same period in the previous year. Overall gross imports of gems and jewellery for the year-to-date period declined 41% to $11771.42 million on a year-on-year basis.

Cut and polished diamond gross exports returned to positive territory in January 2021, rising 9% to $1804.83 million as compared to $1649.14 million in January 2020. In January 2021 gross cut and polished diamond imports, too, rose 26% to $202.56 million versus $160.29 million a year ago.

Year-to-date overall gross exports of cut and polished diamonds dropped 23% to $12492.75 million as compared to $16315.61 million in the corresponding year-ago period .

April 2020-to-January 2021 gross imports of cut and polished diamonds rose 33% year-on-year to $1626.57 million. Year-on-date cut and polished gross imports into the Domestic Tariff Area (DTA) plunged 61% to $176.91 million, but rose sharply by 87% to $1449.66 million to Special Economic Zones (SEZ), mainly the Surat SEZ

Rough diamond gross imports from April 2020 to January 2021 dropped 27% to $8022.51 million, and fell 24% in volume terms to 96.51 million carats.

Provisional gross exports of polished lab-grown diamonds for the April 2020 to January 2021 period shows a growth of 57% to $558.71 million versus the previous year.

In January 2021, the total gross export of plain and studded gold jewellery fell 43% to $494.02 million, and in the year-to-date dropped 65% to $3551.45 million.

Provisional gross exports of silver jewellery from April 2020 to January 2021 grew 42% to $1768.49 million over the comparative year-ago figure. The silver jewellery exports were mainly from the Surat SEZ.

Platinum jewellery gross exports too showed positive growth for the nine-month period, rising 54% to $12.93 million year-on-year.

Provisional gross exports of coloured gemstones for the April 2020 to January 2021 period stood at $142.37 million, down 51% compared with a year ago.