Russia to continue buying diamonds through state fund in 2025
The Russian budget for 2025-2027 has set aside $1.55 billion for the purchase of precious metals and gems.
Bloomberg reports Graff Diamonds, the producer and retailer whose founder twice set records buying gems at auction, plans to raise about $1 billion in an initial public offering in Hong Kong, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.
Graff follows other luxury product makers such as Prada to Hong Kong as China surpasses Japan to become the second-biggest buyer of diamonds behind the US, where demand rose 7 percent last year, compared with 25 percent in the communist country, according to De Beers.
Bloomberg reports sales of luxury items in China such as clothes, handbags, fine jewelry and watches will more than double to about 180 billion yuan ($28 billion) in 2015 from last year, McKinsey & Co. says.
MINING.com reported earlier this week quarterly data from the Hong Kong census and statistics office showed the Middle Kingdom imported about 140 tonnes of gold via Hong Kong in the three months from July to September ahead of the festival season, more than the roughly 120 tonnes for the whole of 2010.
