Customers buy petrol at a station on Tran Hung Dao Street in Ha Noi. — VNA/VNS Photo Quang Quyet

The ministries of industry and trade and finance also issued a document asking petrol traders to lower the price of E5 RON 92 biofuel by VND604 to VND14,840 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 decrease so far this year.

The two ministries also decided to stop the use of the price stabilisation fund for petrol.

Usage of the fund for diesel was also reduced from VND472 to VND51 while kerosene was at VND254 per litre and mazut was at VND136 per kilo.

The ministries said the decrease was due to lower petrol prices on the world market. Over the past 15 days, the average petrol price was $50,141 a barrel, 6.65 per cent less than the previous fortnight.

$2.5b petrol imports

Viet Nam spent around $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 Department of Customs  said.

In the second half of June, Viet Nam imported $249 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 $7.43 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 $80.43 billion, a 0.8 per cent year-on-year decrease. — VNS