Japan’s polished diamond imports fell 24 percent year on year to $53.6 million in February, ‎Momozawa reported citing the Finance Ministry. By volume, the imports grew 10 percent ‎to 149,219 carats, while the average price of diamond dropped 31 percent to $359 per ‎carat.

‎Polished diamond imports from India decreased 8 percent to $27.8 million, imports from Belgium dropped 39 percent to $7.6 million and imports from Israel fell 15 percent to $6 million. Polished imports from Hong Kong declined 64 percent to $2.6 million during the month, while imports from the U.S. rose 14 percent to $1.9 million.

‎During the first two months of the year, Japan's polished imports decreased 10 percent to $127.8 million, even though they grew 3 percent in January to $74.2 million.