Economic indicators can inform non-OECD liquid fuels consumption forecasts (2/14/2018)

Increases in economic activity are typically associated with growth in petroleum and other liquids consumption. EIA lowered the 2018 oil-consumption-weighted Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth forecast in countries outside the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in the February 2018 Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO) from the January STEO, but growth expectations for those countries remain higher than all 2017 STEO forecasts. In the February STEO, EIA expects global petroleum and other liquid fuels consumption to grow by 1.7 million barrels per day (b/d) in 2018, with 1.3 million b/d of that growth coming from non-OECD countries (Figure 1). Because oil consumption data can be lagged or incomplete, the use of frequently released economic indicators can be useful for confirming stronger or weaker periods of economic growth and inform oil consumption forecasts. ... More »