Jewellery exports up 20% in Apr-Sept '07

Gems and jewellery exports grew at over 20 per cent in the first half of financial year 2008, reviving from FY07, helped by cuts in import duties of rough jewels, according to the annual economic survey.

Exports from the sector, comprising diamonds, gold jewellery and coloured gemstones, formed 12 per cent of India's merchandise exports in 2006/07, according to the survey presented in parliament by Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram.

The survey did not provide the growth rate for the sector in 2006/07, but said there had been a "deceleration in the rate of growth of exports" from the sector during that period.

Gems and jewellery accounts for about 12 per cent of India's exports, which is expected to touch $150 billion this financial year. Almost 80 per cent of the country's gems and jewellery exports comprise diamonds.

According to Sanjay Kothari, head of the Gems and Jewellery Export Promotion Council, the surge in exports is largely a result of the import duty cut on polished diamonds. With the dollar weakening against the rupee, exporters prefer to import polished diamonds rather than source them from within the country.

With the rupee appreciating almost 15 per cent against the dollar in the last one year, most sectors have reported a slowdown in export growth, including textiles, apparel and leather products. All these sectors have seen a high incidence of lay-offs.

Gems and jewellery as also petroleum products, on the other hand, has registered high growth on account of their high import content.