(Reuters) -India’s January fuel consumption hit its lowest monthly level since October, but was up 3.2% year-on-year at 20.49 million metric tons, oil ministry data showed on Friday.
WHY IT’S IMPORTANT
India is the world’s third-largest consumer and importer of oil. The data is a proxy for the country’s oil demand.
BY THE NUMBERS
On a monthly basis, January fuel demand was its lowest since October, down more than 1% from 20.73 million tons in December, the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell’s (PPAC) website shows.
Sales of gasoline, or petrol, eased 0.3% compared to last month at 3.3 million tons.
Diesel consumption fell nearly 4% month-on-month to 7.7 million tons in January. It was up 4.3% year-on-year.
Cooking gas or liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) sales increased 5.2% on an annual basis to 2.84 million tons, while naphtha sales fell 12.2% compared with last year to 1.15 million tons.
On a monthly basis, LPG and naphtha sales rose 2.16% and 7.48% respectively.
CONTEXT
India’s sluggish economic growth is likely to persist next fiscal year, weighed down by global risks, said a finance ministry report which called on states for business reforms.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) cut its key interest rate for the first time in nearly five years on Friday, as it seeks to boost the economy, and sees inflation easing towards its 4% target.
India also slashed personal tax rates in its annual budget this month, as the world’s fifth largest economy focuses on boosting domestic demand in the face of global economic uncertainty due to potential new tariff barriers.
DOMESTIC SALES (in million tons):
2025 2024 2024 2024 2023 2023
JAN DEC NOV JAN DEC NOV
Diesel 7.74 8.06 8.17 7.42 7.60 7.53
Petrol 3.31 3.32 3.43 3.10 2.99 3.13
LPG 2.84 2.78 2.67 2.70 2.63 2.49
Naphtha 1.15 1.07 1.10 1.31 1.39 1.05
Jet fuel 0.78 0.78 0.75 0.72 0.72 0.69
Kerosene 0.04 0.04 0.04 0.04 0.04 0.05
Fuel Oil 0.55 0.57 0.50 0.56 0.57 0.51
Bitumen 0.77 0.79 0.71 0.75 0.74 0.62
TOTAL 20.49 20.73 20.66 19.86 20.25 18.68
(Reporting by Daksh Grover, Anmol Choubey and Sarah S. Qureshi in Bengaluru; Editing by Toby Chopra and Alexander Smith)
