Vietnam Hiked Fuel Prices

Vietnam hiked fuel prices at the pump by almost 15 percent Thursday to cope with world oil prices.

The price per litre of petrol rose 1,700 dong (0.11 dollars) to a 13,000-13,300 dong (0.80-0.82 dollars) band under a decision by the finance, and trade and industry ministries, the government said on its official website.

Without the price hike, losses of trading enterprises would have spiralled to 12,000 billion dong (740 million dollars) for the year, Deputy Finance Minister Tran Van Ta was quoted as saying by the VNExpress online newspaper.