Paris  - After a more pessimistic assessment of economic prospects by the International Monetary Fund, the International Energy Agency (IEA) on Wednesday again revised downward global oil demand for 2009.

"Global oil demand is now projected at 84.7 mb/d (million barrels per day) in 2009," the IEA said in its Monthly Oil Report issued in Paris.

This figure is 1.1 per cent lower than the oil demand for last year and 570,000 barrels per day lower than the IEA's previous forecast for 2009, which was issued in January.

The demand estimate for 2008 remains largely unchanged at 85.7 mb/d, or 0.4 per cent below that of 2007, the IEA said.

"Not only will the two-year contraction in oil demand be the first since the early 1980s, but 2009's decline will also be the largest since 1982," the IEA said. (dpa)