LONDON, Feb 13 (Reuters) - Oil demand is set to fall year on
year in the first quarter for the first time since the depths of
the financial crisis in 2009 hurt by the coronavirus outbreak in
China, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Thursday.
"The consequences of Covid-19 for global oil demand will be
significant. Demand is now expected to contract by 435,000
barrels per day (bpd) in Q1, the first quarterly decrease in
more than a decade," the Paris-based IEA said in a monthly
report, using the new scientific name for the virus.
"For 2020 as a whole, we have reduced our global growth
forecast by 365,000 bpd to 825,000 bpd, the lowest since 2011,"
the IEA said, adding that it assumed economic activity from the
second quarter would return progressively to normal.