Industry body, the Gems and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) has stated that the gems and jewellery exports are likely to grow by up to 5% this financial year. It added that growth will be aided by improving demand in the US market during the upcoming Christmas season. The exports had declined by 5% to $40.97 billion in FY18, as compared to $43.16 billion in FY17.
The GJEPC said India's exports of gems and jewellery products is expected to be encouraging in the US market during the upcoming Christmas time majorly backed by rising Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth, employment rate and private consumption expenditure in the country. Otherwise the exports would have been in the negative as the Gulf markets are badly affected.
The gems and jewellery exports growth would be in line with positive growth in exports of cut and polished diamonds and gold jewellery to the US during April-October. As per the GJEPC data, exports of cut and polished diamonds grew by around 22.10% year-on-year during April-October 2018 to $5.43 billion, from $4.45 billion in April-October 2017. Exports of gold jewellery to the US market also witnessed a 13.13% growth to $981.85 million in April-October 2018, from $867.87 million a year ago.
The data also showed that followed by positive consumer demand for jewellery products, US imports like cut and polished diamonds recorded a jump of 14.13% to $18.55 billion in April-October 2018, from $16.26 billion in the year-ago period. Rough diamond imports in FY18 rose to $18.9 billion, from $17.08 billion in 2016-17, while cut and polished diamond exports grew to $23.7 billion, from $22.8 billion.