India’s energy consumption beats GDP growth due to subsidies

India’s energy consumption has risen at a compounded annual growth rate of 5.96% in the last three decades even while GDP has grown by 5.7%, pointing to need for fuel price reforms and securing more of the hydrocarbon from domestic sources.

According to the Energy Statistics report for 2013 prepared by the ministry of statistics and programme implementation (MoSPI), the per capita energy consumption has grown by five times to 6205.25 kWh at the end of 2011-12 from 1,204.39 kWh in 1970-71, a CAGR growth of 3.98%. The per capita energy consumption was up by 7.2% during 2011-12.