Malaysia’s inflation down to 1.9% in September

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s inflation came down to 1.9 per cent in September 2023 with the index points recorded at 130.8 from 128.3 in the same month of the previous year, according to the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM).

Chief Statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said slower increases in Restaurants & Hotels at 4.4 per cent and Food & Non-Alcoholic Beverages at 3.9 per cent helped drive down inflation.

Apart from that, moderate growth was also recorded by Miscellaneous Goods & Services (2.5 per cent); Health (2.2 per cent); Education (2.0 per cent); Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas & Other Fuels (1.6 per cent) and Furnishings, Household Equipment & Routine Household Maintenance (1.5 per cent).

Meanwhile, Alcoholic Beverages & Tobacco and Recreation Services & Culture increased by 0.7 per cent and 0.6 per cent respectively.

He said in a statement today that the Food & Non-Alcoholic Beverages group contributed 29.5 per cent of total consumer price index (CPI) weight, recording a moderate increase of 3.9 per cent from August 2023’s 4.1 per cent.

The component of Food at home recorded an increase of 2.5 per cent compared to 2.9 per cent recorded in the previous month mainly driven by the subgroup of Rice, bread & other cereals (4.1 per cent), while the component of Food away from home remained unchanged as in August 2023’s 5.9 per cent,

Mohd Uzir said the monthly headline inflation in September 2023 up moderately by 0.1 per cent mainly contributed by Alcoholic Beverages & Tobacco and Miscellaneous Goods & Services, which recorded an increase of 0.4 per cent and 0.2 per cent respectively.

The inflation for the third quarter of 2023 inclined 2.0 per cent to 130.7 as compared to 128.1 in the same quarter of the preceding year.

On a quarterly basis, inflation increased 0.4 per cent, the same rate recorded in the second quarter of 2023.

“The core inflation remained at 2.5 per cent, the same rate as recorded in August 2023 but it still surpassed the overall national inflation rate (1.9 per cent).

“The highest increase was recorded by Food & Non-Alcoholic Beverages group with a 5.1 per cent. This was followed by Restaurants & Hotels (4.4 per cent) and Transport (2.9 pe cent).

In comparison to inflation of other countries, September’s inflation in Malaysia of 1.9 per cent was lower than the inflation in the Philippines (6.1 per cent), eurozone (4.3 per cent), South Korea (3.7 per cent), Vietnam (3.7 per cent), the United States (3.7 per cent) and Indonesia (2.3 per cent).- BK