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India's fuel consumption in November rose by 9.3 per cent year-on-year to 20.43 million metric tons, reaching its highest level since May, oil ministry data showed.
WHY IT IS IMPORTANT
India is the world's third-largest consumer and importer of oil. The data is a proxy for the country's oil demand.
KEY QUOTE
All fuels saw larger increase due to a combination of factors like solid economic activity and travel activity, said analyst Giovanni Staunovo of UBS.
BY THE NUMBERS
On a monthly basis, fuel demand was up 2 per cent from 20.02 million tons in October, data from the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell's (PPAC) website showed.
Sales of gasoline, or petrol, were 9.6 per cent higher from a year earlier at 3.43 million metric tons, marking its highest level since May 2024.
Diesel consumption saw a rise of 8.5 per cent year-on-year to 8.17 million tons in November, its highest in six months. It was up 6.9 per cent month-on-month basis.
Cooking gas or liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) sales increased 7.5 per cent on an annual basis at 2.67 million tons in November, while naphtha sales edged up 0.5 per cent to 1.05 million tons.
CONTEXT
India's dominant services industry rose at its fastest pace in three months in November, helped by an improving services industry and record job creation, but output inflation spiked to a near 12-year high, a survey showed.
India's factory growth cooled in November yet maintained a strong pace, leading to significantly improved optimism despite demand easing a bit due to higher price pressures, a business survey found.
Asia's imports of jet fuel from India are set to hit multi-year highs in November ahead of peak winter demand after refinery outages and lower exports from China crimped supplies, according to industry sources and shiptracking data. -Reuters