India appears to be acting as a drag on world oil consumption growth. This represents a reversal of long-standing trends since the South Asian country has been one of the main contributors to this growth for the last 20 years.
The about-face stems from India’s economic slowdown, which has cut into vehicle sales and business activity. This development could force analysts to trim their forecasts for global consumption growth by 100,000 barrels per day, which might bring the total figure down to 1 million bpd or less.
According to BP’s Statistical Review of World Energy, India’s total oil consumption rose by 5% per year on average between 1998 and 2018. By contrast, the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas has reported that growth rates came to just 1.45% year on year between June and August of 2019.