Vietnam Petrol Traders Must Slacken Price Hikes: Ministry

The Vietnamese Ministry of Finance said on its website on July 21 that it has issued an official document to request petroleum traders to slacken price hikes to 30 days instead of earlier 10 days in order to curb possibly high CPI and stabilize local market.

The ministry asked for contributions of VND500/liter of gasoline and VND400/liter of oil products to the petroleum price stabilization fund instead of earlier VND500/liter of petroleum.

Concerning the issues, General Director of the state-run Vietnam National Petroleum Corp (Petrolimex) Vuong Thai Dung said the request may hinder traders from adjusting prices in line with fluctuations in the world market.

He attributed that petroleum prices in the world market were varying at between US$80 and US$86/barrels over the past few days, which led to traders’ estimated losses of between VND200 and VND300/liter of products but Petrolimex has had no plans for price hikes.

Recently, the ministry once again requested no power and coal price hikes and slackening petroleum price increases in the second half of this year to ensure the national macroeconomic targets set for the year.

The ministry has twice requested petroleum traders again to lower the domestic retail prices in line with the price fall in the world market.

Currently, prices of gasoline A92 is at VND15,990/liter, diesel at VND14,350/liter, kerosene at VND14,700/liter and fuel oil at VND12,500/liter.

Vietnam’s CPI is likely to soar between 8% and 8.3% in 2010, compared to the National Assembly’s target of 7%, the Price Management Department under the Ministry of Finance said.

The country’s economy is likely to grow between 6.5% and 6.8% this year, fulfilling the National Assembly’s whole-year target of 6.5%, the Ministry of Planning and Investment forecast.

Tags: Vietnam petrol, Vietnam Petrol prices