ALROSA’s study of the global luxury and jewellery market for 2018 reveals that global sales of diamond jewellery grew by 4% in the period as compared to the previous year  amounting to a total of US$85.9 billion.

“The growth rate of the global jewellery market was lower than in 2017 (+5%), mainly as a result of a slowdown in key consumption markets in the second half of 2018,” ALROSA remarked.

The year 2018 started well for diamond jewellery sales with the first half of the year seeing “persistently high demand” from both the   local populations and tourists in the key consumption markets. As a result, growth for H1 2018 reached 6%. However, the Company noted that in the second half of the year, consumer demand in non-dollar countries began to show “less steady growth rates”, and in some countries there was actually a decline, as a result of local currencies weakening against the US dollar. “At the same time, the growth rate of the global diamond jewellery market slowed down to +2% in the second half of the year,” ALROSA stated.

In North America, which accounts for more than half of overall global sales, diamond jewellery showed consistently high growth rates for most of the year, resulting in a 4% growth in 2018 compared with the prior year.

Sales in Asia (including  the countries of Southeast Asia and India, which account for about 30% of global diamond jewellery sales) in the first half of the year witnessed higher growth rates than in North America. In the second half, the growth rate of diamond jewellery sales slowed down to +1%, resulting in  a growth of 5%  -- comparable to the North American market --  by the end of 2018.