According to a Rough and Polished report, analysts at the Boston-based global management consulting firm Bain & Company are of the opinion that the international diamond industry has not only bucked worldwide trends but has also witnessed a notable growth in size.

Going by the Bain & Company statistics, there has been an 18 percent increase - to $71 billion - in the sales of diamond jewelry across the world; with the $27 billion total share of the US comprising the biggest share of the diamond jewelry market.

Furthermore, as per the Rough and Polished report, titled `The global diamond industry - Portrait of Growth,' the Bain analysts have attributed the recent rise in the prices of rough diamonds and polished diamonds to supply shortages of rough diamonds. While the amount of rough diamonds marketed every year saw a 3 percent fall to 128 million carats in 2010, the figures plunged further to 124 million carats in 2011.

However, the Rough and Polished report also revealed that Bain had confirmed that the size of the diamond industry would continue to grow, chiefly because of the growth of the middle class in countries like China and India.

Noting that the growing demand will apparently witness the sales of rough diamonds increasing to $26.1 billion by 2020, from the 2011 sales of $15.6, the report's co-author Yury Spektorov - who is a Moscow-based Bain & Company partner - said: "The fundamental forces point to a bright outlook for the diamond market."