Botswana's diamond market experiencing slowdown

Botswana is one of the world's largest diamond exporters, with diamond industry playing major role in the economy of this otherwise poor African country. The bad news is that Botswana's diamond market is experiencing slowdown as nation's diamond exports fell by 61 percent, accounting to a staggering loss of $260.4 million in revenue this past year.

Botswana’s Central bank also reported that during the first seven months of this year, diamond exports fell by 31 percent, resulting in a huge $2.28 billion loss to economy.

The major culprit for this scenario is global economic recession accompanied by the low prices of diamonds and lack of foreign investments.

Diamonds play huge role in Botswana's economy by accounting for more than 30 percent of Botswana’s GDP and over 50 percent of the government’s revenue.

Many analysts expect market to pick up in 2013-2014 because many investors are still reluctant to make significant investments into new infrastructure projects as the effects of global recession don't look to be changing by the end of this year.