diamond prices

"The DeBeers stock at the time of Asian currency crisis of 1997/1998 had a value of several billion dollars. Our senior management questioned whether holding such a large stock was a sustainable and efficient use of capital," Davies said, "and this triggered a strategic review that resulted in a decision to liquidate the stockpile over a number of years." Responding to that claim, Vanderlinden said, "we can only take them at their word. Nobody really knows. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle."

The growing demand for more unusual and unique designs have been under constant growth within the recent past. Rakhmanina claims that Rifesta's newer fancy cut diamond collection found great success this year. "It was a long shot because people in Russia like round diamonds, but the new shapes were so unusual for the Russian eye that they worked. Of course, special marketing helped." The stones in discussion ranged from .05 carats to .30 carats in size. Several manufacturing facilities said that the best selling diamonds fro their companies were in the range of the 1 to the k color and VS1 to SI1, although there were different increases in demand for better jewelry.