KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 22 (NNN-Bernama) — Malaysia’s headline inflation rate remained at 1.5 per cent in December 2023, with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) recorded at 131.2 points versus 129.2 a year earlier, according to the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM).
Chief statistician Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said there were lower increases in restaurants and hotels group (3.7 per cent; November 2023: 4.3 per cent), miscellaneous goods and services (2.7 per cent; November 2023: 2.3 per cent) as well as food and non-alcoholic beverages (2.3 per cent; November 2023: 2.6 per cent).
“Main groups that showed increases were health (2.5 per cent; November 2023: 2.3 per cent) and transport (0.3 per cent; November 2023: 0.1 per cent),” he said in a statement Monday.
The annual headline inflation in 2023 rose by 2.5 per cent compared with 3.3 per cent in 2022.
DOSM said this is due to a 5.6 per cent increase in restaurants and hotels (2022: 5.0 per cent), 4.8 per cent rise in food and non-alcoholic beverages (2022: 5.8 per cent), and 2.4 per cent growth in miscellaneous goods and services (2022: 2.0 per cent).
DOSM said monthly headline inflation inclined at 0.2 per cent (November 2023: zero per cent) with a few main groups posting increases on a monthly basis, namely recreation services and culture at 0.4 per cent, food and non-alcoholic beverages at 0.3 per cent, and transport at 0.3 per cent.
Meanwhile, core inflation increased at a slower pace of 1.9 per cent in December 2023 (November 2023: 2.0 per cent) and still surpassed the overall national inflation rate of 1.5 per cent.
This was due to the restaurants and hotels as well as food and non-alcoholic beverages groups which recorded moderate increases of 3.7 per cent and 3.2 per cent, respectively, in December 2023.
In comparison to inflation of other selected countries, the inflation in Malaysia (1.5 per cent) was lower than inflation in the Philippines (3.9 per cent), Vietnam (3.6 per cent), the United States (3.4 per cent), South Korea (3.2 per cent), eurozone (2.9 per cent) and Indonesia (2.6 per cent).
However, the rate was higher than Thailand (-0.8 per cent) and China (-0.3 per cent).
— NNN-BERNAMA