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POLICY AND ECONOMIC REPORT
OIL & GAS MARKET

Another key driver of this resilience is the continued surge in investment in the information technology
sector—especially in artificial intelligence. While manufacturing activity remains subdued, IT investment
as a share of US economic output has surged to the highest level since 2001, providing a major boost to
overall business investment and activity. Although this IT surge has been concentrated in the United
States, it is also generating positive spillovers globally, most notably to Asia’s technology exports.

Figure 7: U.S. IT investment at its all-time high

Source - IMF

4. Global electricity demand is set to grow strongly to 2030, underscoring need for
investments in grids and flexibility- IEA

Global power demand is set to grow by more than 3.5% per year on average over the rest of this decade,
with electricity generation from renewables, natural gas and nuclear all expanding to keep pace, according
to an IEA report.

According to the report, electricity demand is on course to grow at least 2.5 times as fast as overall energy
demand through 2030 as the Age of Electricity takes hold. This is driven by rising industrial use of
electricity, the continued uptake of electric vehicles, higher air conditioning use and the expansion of data
centers and AI. While emerging and developing economies remain the main engines of electricity demand
growth, consumption from advanced economies is also rising after 15 years of stagnation – contributing
to a fifth of the total increase in power demand through 2030.

The report finds that global electricity generation from renewables - boosted by record deployment of
solar PV – is now in the process of overtaking generation from coal, after virtually drawing level with it in
2025 based on the latest available data. Nuclear power output also rose to a new record. The momentum

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