The International Energy Agency warned Tuesday that there is unlikely to be much relief from current high oil prices because of brisk demand in China and other emerging markets.
Towering, $100-a-barrel crude prices continue to chip away at oil consumption in the United States and other developed countries, the Paris-based agency said in its monthly report.
As it has in recent months, the IEA revised down 2008 crude consumption in the U.S., Europe and other developed markets, forecasting a drop of 190,000 barrels a day to 49.3 million barrels a day.
In past years, falling demand in rich countries delivered some relief from high oil prices.
But today, most of the oil demand growth is coming from China, India and other fast-growing emerging markets, where consumers are largely protected from the effects of high oil prices because of fuel subsidies that reduce incentives for conservation.
The IEA revised up its 2008 oil demand forecast for China and other countries outside the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, by 120,000 barrels a day to 38.3 million barrels a day due to changes to 2006 data.
The IEA is the energy watchdog for the OECD, a grouping of the world's most industrialized meetings.
