NEW DELHI: India’s auto fuel and electricity consumption continued to surge in December, propelled by demand from the farm sector for Kharif sowing, holiday travel and falling temperature across the northern region, latest industry and government data showed on Wednesday.
A key indicator of economic activities, diesel sales grew almost 5% from a year ago to mark the second consecutive month of recovery in demand. But there were indications of inherent weakness as the consumption was 1.7% lower than November.
Petrol consumption grew 9.8% compared to a year ago, maintaining the growth momentum since the monsoon months. On monthly basis, however, sales were 3.6% lower than November.
Electricity consumption increased nearly 6% to more than 130 BU (billion units) in December compared to 123 BU in the year-ago period. Peak power demand, or the highest supply in a day rose to more than 224 GW (gigawatts) during the month under review from 213.6 GW in December 2023.
Jet fuel sales continued in the green zone with a 6.8% annual growth in December as more people took to the skies for holidaying. On monthly basis too, sales were 5.2% higher than November.
Consumption of LPG, or cooking gas supplied to households, shot up by more than 5% compared to December 2023 on the back of festive cooking and falling temperature.
Petrol and diesel sales had remained slugging during the monsoon as rains reduced vehicular movement, curtailed construction work and pared demand from the agriculture sector. But petrol demand jumped once rains eased but diesel sales struggled.
