Japan’s polished diamond imports fell 15 percent year on year to $64.5 million in May, ‎Momozawa reported citing the Finance Ministry. By volume, the imports grew 31 percent ‎to 180,554 carats, while the average price of the goods dropped 35 percent to $357 per ‎carat.

‎Polished diamond imports from India grew 22 percent to $29.9 million, while imports from Belgium rose 15 percent to $12.9 million and imports from Israel increased 7 percent to $7 million. Polished imports from Hong Kong declined 33 percent during the month, while imports from the United States increased 21 percent to $ 2.1 million.

‎During the first five months of the year, Japan's polished imports decreased 4 percent to $335.6 million, while the volume of imports rose 28 percent to 938,249 carats.