China’s 2011 diamond jewelry sales expected to rise 12 percent

 

[AFNS] JOHANNESBURG,SOUTH AFRICA 19 September 2011?Diamond jewelry sales in China are expected to rise 12 percent this year from last year’s figure of almost $2billon.Providing an extra boost is last year’s cut in China’s value-added tax on imported gemstones.

 

According to De Beers,china is the second-biggest diamond market in Asia and the fastest-growing consumer diamond market in the world after India.Diamond jewelry is increasingly displacing the traditional gold and jade jewelry grooms give to brides in China.

 

Diamond wedding jewelry now makes up 32 percent of the Chinese diamond jewelry market overal,according to De Beers.

 

Christina Hudson,mareting director for the De Beers Group in Greater China,said that diamond wedding jewelry is at the center of De Beers’ growth strategy in China,as it has traditionally been for the company elsewhere in the world.

 

A service of the Antwerp Facets News Service (AFNS),Article may be reproduced peovided that credit is given to AFNS.