Ker-ching. Bling is back. Just ask the Chinese tourists who splashed out on diamonds and luxury goods in Hong Kong over the Lunar New Year holidays. Buyers in China, Hong Kong and India last year accounted for about a fifth of world diamond demand, half that of their US counterparts. Asian markets, together with the Gulf region, will overtake the US by 2015, De Beers data show. That will be music to the ears of rough-diamond producers, as the industry emerges from its financial crisis funk.
叮郎郎。奢侈品正閃耀迴歸。只要去問問春節期間在香港大手筆購買鑽石和奢侈品的中國遊客就清楚了。去年,中國內地、香港和印度的買家約佔全球鑽石需求的五分之一,是美國的一半。戴比爾斯(De Beers)的數據顯示,亞洲市場以及海灣地區的鑽石需求將在2015年超過美國。在鑽石行業走出金融危機的恐慌之際,這將是天然鑽石加工廠商耳中的天籟之音。