World oil demand is growing at its fastest rate in six years, and is almost back to pre-recession levels of 2007. Oil sales in the Argus-15 countries - the US, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK, Japan, South Korea, Australia, China, India, Brazil, Mexico and Argentina, which account for around 60pc of global demand - was 52.2mn b/d in January-August this year, the highest since early 2008 and 3pc up on the same period last year. But the growth is concentrated in a small group of emerging economies led by China. Demand in China, India, Mexico, Brazil and Argentina has grown by 8pc this year, compared with an increase of just 0.9pc in the 10 industrialised economies. This reflects the differences in economic growth between the industrialised and emerging economies highlighted by the IMF in its new World Economic Outlook.
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