IDEX Polished Price: Tariffs Push up Prices Slightly in April
May 05, 25
(IDEX Online) - The IDEX Polished Price Index closed the month up 0.58 per cent - after US President Donald Trump's tariff announcement on 2 April sent prices surging briefly for a couple of days.
But those gains were largely wiped out by a gradual decline over the rest of the month.
Trump announced a 90-day pause on reciprocal tariffs a week later, on 9 April.
If the tariffs are implemented, US importers would have to pay 26 per cent on goods from India - source of at least 90 per cent of all polished diamonds - which would inevitably lead to price hikes.
Indian goods were zero-rated before Trump's announcement. Despite the lifting of reciprocal tariffs, they are still subject to a 10 per cent tariff.
The slight uptick in April follows a slight fall (0.54 per cent) in March. In February it was stable (a marginal 0.02 per cent gain) and in January it fell 1.32 per cent.
Prices remain more or less stable, after more than two years of overall decline. Gains and losses have been less marked in recent months, with Index now virtually the same as it was in January (95.35 compared to 95.40). Prices are still lower than when the Index was launched (benchmarked at 100) in July 2004.
The trend has been mostly downwards since the Index hit its lowest point for 13 years in May 2024, albeit with a small bump in early 2024.
Month-to-month prices in April showed their first significant increase since January 2024 - up by 0.6 per cent (excluding a marginal 0.1 per cent rise last December). Price drops hit a low last July and the overall trend since then has been for smaller monthly losses.
Prices in March were down by just 0.2 per cent, after falls of 0.5 per cent in February and 1.1 per cent in January.
Year-to-year prices showed further signs of gradual improvement, down by 11.1 per cent in April, compared to 12.8 per cent in March and 13.4 per cent in February. Having said that, April 2025 was the 29th consecutive month of negative growth.
Prices for most sizes shown below increased slightly in April, reversing slight decreases for most sizes in March. There were losses for 4.0-cts and 5.0-cts, as there were in March, but all other prices increased, by between 0.3 per cent and 1.2 per cent.
Year-on-year price movements in April largely mirrored those of February and March, with heavy losses for 0.50-cts and 1.0-cts, and smaller losses for larger sizes shown below.
Year-to-year prices for almost all sizes shown below (except 4.0-cts and 5.0-cts) rose marginally in April after many months of overall decline.
