ANN/THE STAR – Malaysia’s inflation in February 2023 remained at 3.7 per cent, led by growing costs in food and hospitality.
The rate of increase, which brought the consumer price index (CPI) to 129.8, was on a par with the increase in January, and higher than the 3.6 per cent median forecast of a Reuters poll of economists.
In a statement, chief statistician of the Statistics Department Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the restaurants and hotels sector saw prices rise 7.4 per cent while the food and non-alcoholic beverages sector advanced seven per cent.
This was partially mitigated by the slower increase in the transport group, which was 3.7 per cent as compared with four per cent in January.
In addition, the increase in Malaysia’s inflation was also due to the increase in furnishings, household equipment and routine household maintenance (3.4 per cent); miscellaneous goods and services (2.5 per cent) and health (1.8 per cent).
Housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels and recreation services and culture recorded an increase of 1.7 per cent respectively, while education increased 1.6 per cent.
There was a slower increase in the food away from home component of 8.9 per cent as compared with 9.3 per cent in January.
“Among the initiatives that were introduced by the government to reduce the cost of living and ease the inflation of food away from home was Menu Rahmah that was announced on January 31, 2023,” said Mohd Uzir in a statement.
However, the food at home component was driven higher by 5.8 per cent as compared with 5.1 per cent in January amid greater price increases in all its subgroups.
“Continuous heavy rain since the end of December 2022 to February 2023 in several states has led to increases in food prices, especially vegetables.
“As a result of the transition of the monsoon, the inflation for the vegetables subgroup has recorded a significant increase of 5.8 per cent as compared to one per cent in January 2023,” said Mohd Uzir.
Meanwhile, transport inflation slowed to 3.7 per cent in February as compared with four per cent in January.
The increase of the average price of unleaded petrol RON97 eased to 4.4 per cent (MYR3.35 per litre) as compared to 9.5 per cent recorded in January 2023 (MYR3.35 per litre).
The moderate increase in fuel prices was in tandem with the 13.6 per cent decline in the price of Brent crude oil to USD82.71 per barrel in February 2023 from USD95.76 in February 2022.
