A man buys petrol at a station in Ha Noi. Vietnamese authorities seem unsure if and when petrol rises will fall in line with world oil prices. — VNA/VNS Photo Hoang Hung

HA NOI (Biz Hub)— Vietnamese authorities seem unsure if and when petrol rises will fall in line with world prices for oil, but the chances are that nothing will happen until the end of September when a new decree governing the petrol industry is issued.

At present, any adjustments to petrol prices must comply with Decree 84, said Nguyen Xuan Chien, Deputy Director of the Domestic Market Department under the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

Although world petrol prices have been falling since the end of July, any decrease in domestic petrol prices must be based on the calculations of the 30-day average world prices, Chien said.

If the 30-average falls, wholesale enterprises must lower the domestic retail petrol price, Chien said.

Chien added that there would be a completely new decree to replace Decree 84 which was revealed many limitations in regulating petrol business, instead of just amending it.

Industrial stockpiles fall

The manufacturing and processing industry's inventory index continues to fall thanks to higher domestic consumption, said Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Ho Thi Kim Thoa.

The ministry's figures indicated that July's index ended 8.8 per cent above last July's, but decreased by 0.9 per cent against June.

Sales have increased in commodities such as urea fertiliser (up 41.3 per cent), motorcycles (19 per cent), cement (14.2 per cent), footwear (11.9 per cent) and garments (8.6 per cent).

Sectors with highest drop in inventories included electronic components (down 75.2 per cent), communication devices (down 76.9 per cent), automobile manufacturing (down 38.1 per cent), cement production (down 33.7 per cent), woven production (down 32.3 per cent) and footwear (down 19.2 per cent).

However, some production sectors posted inventory indexes with high growths, such as sugar (up 49.6 per cent), beer (up 33.3 per cent) and batteries (up 37.7 per cent).

In July, the index of industrial production (IIP) surged by 5.2 per cent and the consumption index for the processing and manufacturing sector also jumped 8.3 per cent year-on-year. — VNS