Vietnam gasoline price drops second time after four consecutive hikes

Retail gasoline prices in Vietnam slipped by VND1,000-1,080 ($0.04) a liter on Thursday, the second drop after four consecutive hikes since mid-October.

RON 95-III gasoline went down to VND22,700 ($0.93) per liter, while E5 RON 92 hit VND21,670 ($0.88).

Diesel oil dipped by VND1,590 to VND23,210 ($0.95). Kerosene slipped by VND1,080 to VND23,560 ($0.96) a liter.

The new diesel oil price is VND510 ($0.02) higher than that for RON 95-III.

As for Thursday's price cuts, Vietnamese authorities continued to avoid the Fuel Price Stabilization Fund. Instead, they increased 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.