India's fuel demand in September rose for the first time since June as easing coronavirus restrictions supported economic activity and travel, but consumption remained weak from a year earlier, government data showed on Friday.

Consumption of refined fuels, a proxy for oil demand, rose 7.2% in September from the prior month to 15.47 million tonnes, its first monthly increase since June when demand rose to 16.09 million tonnes.

However, demand fell 4.4% from the same period a year earlier, posting its seventh consecutive year-on-year slide, data from the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC) of the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas showed.

India's daily number of coronavirus infections has slowed since hitting a single-day high of 97,894 new cases on Sept. 17, a sign that infections were peaking for now.

The country's factory activity also expanded at its fastest pace in more than eight years in September, even as lay-offs continued.

Demand in August was the weakest since April, hurt by a throttling of economic activity and transport due to restrictions.

Diesel consumption, a key parameter linked to economic growth and accounts for about 40% of overall refined fuel sales in India, rose 13.2% to 5.49 million tonnes last month from 4.85 million tonnes in August.

However, on an annual basis, demand for diesel declined about 6%.

Sales of gasoline, or petrol, rose by 3.3% from a year earlier to 2.45 million tonnes, and by 2.9% from 2.38 million tonnes in August.

Cooking gas or liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) sales increased by 4.8% to 2.27 million tonnes from a year earlier, while naphtha sales rose 2.9% to 1.14 million tonnes and by 5.7% from August.

Sales of bitumen, used for making roads, rose 38.3% from last year, and fuel oil decreased by 7.4% and by about 4.1% month-on-month.