IN BRIEF (Page 14)

Sinopec oil growth outlook

China Petroleum & Chemical Corp, Asia's biggest refiner, expects the nation's oil-product demand to grow at 0.6 to 0.7 times that of the gain in gross domestic product, said Zheng Baomin, director of investor relations. The government has forecast GDP to expand 8 percent in 2009, Zheng said at a conference yesterday in Singapore. This equates to China's oil-product demand growing between 4.8 percent and 5.6 percent this year, according to Bloomberg calculations based on Zheng's speech.

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