Hong Kong saw a 36 percent increase in value of its polished diamond imports valuing $2.94 billion, in the first quarter of 2010, reports say. The average price per carat of polished diamonds increased 49 percent to $492.01 per carat. In terms of volume, the said imports dipped 9 percent year-on-year to 5.978 million carats, reports add. Exports of polished diamonds jumped 24 percent to $2.17 billion. Net polished imports increased 85 percent to $775.3 million. %% Rough diamond imports also jumped 57 percent in value terms to $253.4 million, and by 39 percent in volume terms to $3.4 billion, reports say. Average price of rough imports rose 13 percent to $74.6 million. Exports of roughs increased 27 percent, and net rough imports scaled up to $41.7 million, although in the corresponding period of last year, exports were higher than imports by $5.3 million. The country’s net diamond account (total polished and rough imports less total exports) scaled up by 97 percent to $817 million, reports add.