India's flat May fuel demand points to sluggish economy

NEW DELHI: India’s fuel call for in May was once unchanged from a yr previous, initial executive information showed on Saturday, indicating a continued slowdown in more than a few sectors together with industrial output.

Fuel consumption, a proxy for oil call for, was once 18.61 million tonnes in May, information from the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC) of the oil ministry showed on Saturday.

Indian economic system grew five.8% in March quarter, its slowest pace in more than 4 yr, falling in the back of China’s pace for the primary time in nearly two years.

GDP growth falls to 5.8% in January-March quarter, falls underneath China

India's GDP (gross dometic product) growth for the January-March (This autumn) quarter slowed to 5.8 in keeping with cent from 6.6 in keeping with cent in the earlier (October-December) quarter, executive information showed on Friday. This is the slowest GDP growth price in five years, as a chill in domestic and global client call for hit manufacturers and service suppliers.

Several signs – automotive gross sales, rail freight and domestic air site visitors - indicate a slowdown in domestic consumption. India has not yet released industrial output information for May.

Sales of fuel, or petrol, rose by means of a strong 11.32% to 2.73 million tonnes in May because the narrowing worth hole with diesel is pushing motorists to go for petrol-driven cars. Diesel gross sales rose 2.84% to 7.78 million tonnes.

Cooking gasoline, or liquefied petroleum gasoline (LPG), rose marginally to 2.06 million tonnes.

Naphtha gross sales larger by means of 7.73% to at least one.09 million tonnes and gross sales of bitumen, used for making roads, were down by means of 8.four%.

India revised down its fuel consumption for April to 17.67 million tonnes, a decline of 0.6% from a yr previous, the information showed.