Vietnam gasoline price drops for fourth time after 4 consecutive hikes

Retail gasoline prices in Vietnam slipped by VND370-500 ($0.02) a liter on Wednesday, the fourth drop after four consecutive hikes since mid-October and equal to the price in June 2021.

RON 95-III gasoline went down to VND20,700 ($0.87) per liter, while E5 RON 92 hit VND19,970 ($0.84).

Diesel oil dipped by VND70 to VND21,600 ($0.91). Kerosene slipped by VND70 to VND21,830 ($0.92) a liter.

The new diesel oil price is VND900 ($0.03) higher than that for RON 95-III.

As for Wednesday's price cuts, Vietnamese authorities continued to avoid the Fuel Price Stabilization Fund. Instead, they not change the provisions for the fund, at VND400 for each liter of RON 95-III and VND300 for each liter of E5 RON 92.

The National Assembly on July 6 adopted lowered environmental taxes on fuel, applied from July 11 till the year-end, amid globally increasing oil prices that put pressure on inflation.

According to the General Statistics Office, the consumer price index (CPI) in November increased by 0.39% compared to October. In comparison to December last year, November’s CPI increased by 4.56%.

Meanwhile, the index in the January-November period rose 3.02% year-on-year. Core inflation increased by 2.38%, which reflects fluctuations in consumer prices mainly driven by the price of food and energy. Core inflation is a measure of inflation that excludes some volatile commodities like food and energy.

Vietnam is facing rising inflationary pressure due to surging prices of energy and input materials and the U.S. Federal Reserve’s interest rate hikes.