Maintaining Indian momentum

Energy demand is expected to pick up in the year ahead after faltering in 2017. EV sales will rise

India's stellar oil-demand story stumbled in 2017. Following record-high demand growth in 2015 (303,000 barrels a day) and 2016 (380,000 b/d), 2017 was much more variable, falling by 88,000 b/d in the first quarter, recovering to 153,000 b/d in the second, and witnessing the largest year-on-year drop since 2006 in August, before recovering in September (numbers from Energy Aspects). Barring widespread flooding in August, these included policy-induced shocks: the demonetisation of 86% of currency in late 2016 and introduction of a new Goods and Services Tax (GST) in mid-2017 hit business activity and consumption. Consequently, GDP-growth forecasts for 2017 and 2018 have been pared down by the