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India's fuel consumption eased in April from record highs seen the previous month, official data showed on Monday, but sales of diesel scaled a new peak indicating robust industrial activity in the world's third biggest oil consumer.
Gasoil, or diesel, accounts for about two-fifths of refined fuel consumption in India and is directly linked to industrial activity. India's factory activity expanded at its quickest pace in more than four months in April.
Sales of diesel, mainly used by trucks, increased around 8.6% in April to 7.82 million tonnes, the highest ever as per data going back until 1998 from the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC).
Consumption of fuel, a proxy for oil demand, meanwhile, eased 0.3% year-on-year to 18.41 million tonnes in April, also retreating over 10% from the record highs seen in March powered by robust economic activity.
Oil demand is holding up quite well and should continue rising supported by solid economic growth in India, said UBS analyst Giovanni Staunovo.
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Sales of jet fuel also jumped 18.2% year-on-year to 0.65 million tonnes, but eased from a record high in March.
Sales of gasoline, or petrol, that's used in passenger vehicles, meanwhile, declined 7.4% from last month, yet was up 2.9% on a year-on-year basis.
India cut the windfall tax on petroleum crude earlier this month, and left the tax on petrol, diesel and aviation turbine fuel at zero.
Cooking gas, or liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), sales decreased 10.8% to around 2.2 million tonnes month-on-month.
(Reporting by Rahul Paswan and Seher Dareen in Bengaluru; Editing by Toby Chopra and Ed Osmond)
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