After half a year of strong oil price rises, Asian crude demand is slowing and by some measures falling, and many market participants suspect it is not just a cyclical phenomenon, but also a product of more permanent structural changes.
With years of annual economic growth of 7-10 percent in China and similar recent figures from India, Asia-Pacific has overtaken the Americas to become the world’s biggest oil consuming region, accounting for almost 40 percent of global demand.
