De Beers rough diamond sales ‘significantly higher’ than last year

De Beers has reported “significantly higher” sales of rough diamonds in its tenth sales cycle of the year, when compared with last year.

Provisional sales including global sightholder sales and auction sales stood at $418m (£328m).

This was up from the $248m (£195m) recorded last year, although is slightly down on the $476m (£374m) raised in its ninth sales cycle of 2016.

Bruce Cleaver, CEO, said the company continued to see “good demand” for rough diamonds in its latest sales cycle.

“While the trade in lower value rough diamonds is experiencing a temporary slowdown as a result of the demonetisation programme in India, demand across the rest of the product mix continued to be healthy and overall sales remained in line with seasonal expectations,” he said.

“Pleasingly, sales were also significantly higher than those for the equivalent cycle in 2015.”