Media reports out of Africa say that Debswana Diamond Co., the largest rough diamond miner by value, and a the joint venture between De Beers and the Government of Botswana, has made known its intention to reduce its production target for 2015 --  from 23 million carats announced earlier, to  20 million carats.

The news only goes to confirm and underline the overall slump in the diamond market, which is marked by low demand as well as low prices.

De Beers had earlier announced that it would be reducing its production target for 2015 from 31 million carats to 29 million carats.

More recently, the Botswana government had cut down its growth expectations for the year from 4.9% to 2.6%. It also anticipated a budgetary deficit of P 4.03 billion or 2.6% of its GDP as its economy is highly reliant on the diamond industry.