The price of RON 92 petrol and bio-fuel E5 slid 665 VND and 604 VND per litre, respectively, from 3:00 pm on July 20th, according to the Ministry of Trade and the Ministry of Finance.

Motorcyclists have their vehicles' petrol tanks filled (Photo: VNA)

The two ministries issue a joint decision on the base fuel prices every 15 days, depending on the fluctuation of world oil and gas prices since the previous announcement.

RON 92 and E5 are now sold at no more than VND15,303 and VND14,843, respectively per litre.

The prices of other products such as diesel, kerosene and mazut remain unchanged at VND12,300 per litre, VND10,670 per litre and VND9,000 per kilo, respectively.

This is the seventh price cut so far this year.

The ministries said the decrease was due to lower petrol prices on the world market. Over the past 15 days, the average price of RON 92 was USD50,141 per barrel, down about USD5 while the average price of diesel 0.05S was USD55,304 per barrel, down USD2.

USD2.5 billion spent on imported petrol

Việt Nam spent around USD 2.5 billion on imports of petroleum in the first half of the year. Petroleum remains in the top 10 products with the biggest import revenue in the country, the General Customs Department said.

In the second half of June, Việt Nam imported USD249 million petrol products, increasing 10 per cent over the first half of the month.

The department said the total import value in the period saw a slight increase of 1.3 per cent from the first half of June to USD7.43 billion.

The increasing import value was attributed to computers, electronics and spare parts (7 per cent), machines, equipment (4.7 per cent), and pharmaceuticals (46 per cent).

Imports of some products also saw declines, such as home appliances and spare parts (25 per cent) and clothes (4.3 per cent).

By the end of last month, the country’s total import turnover was more than USD80.43 billion, a 0.8 per cent year-on-year decrease./.

Ha Thuong