Uncertainty returns to haunt economic recovery

Diamonds, the country’s single most economically important commodity, are usually the first to hint that the country’s fortunes will go through a testing period. Being intricately linked to international markets such as the United States, China, India and diamond centres such as Brussels and Tel Aviv, the country’s diamonds act as a wet finger in the wind for the local economy.

The recessions of 2009 and 2015 were all first tasted by rough diamonds and eventually driven by them. Debswana, the country’s predominant producer of precious stones, has an expression for the instability global markets often bring to the local economy: Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous or VUCA.