MALAYSIA’S consumer price index (CPI), which measures headline inflation, rose 0.5% to 3.7% in August, compared with 3.2% in July.

The Statistics Department said in a statement yesterday that core inflation increased 2.4% in August 2017 compared with the same month last year.

Among the major groups which recorded increases were the indices for food and non-alcoholic beverages (+4.3%); transport (+2.1%); housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels (+2.9%); restaurants and hotels (+2.8%); health (+2.7%); and furnishings, household equipment and routine household maintenance (+2.7%). 

The transport group index showed a significant increase of 11.7% on a year-on-year basis in August after rising 7.7% in July.

The average price of a litre of RON95 petrol was RM1.96 in July 2017 compared with RM1.75 in July 2016 while for RON97, the average price increased to RM2.21 in July 2017 compared with RM2.10 previously.

Fuels and lubricants for personal transport equipment accounted for 7.8% of the CPI weighting.

During the month under review, it said, the food and non-alcoholic beverages index, which accounted for 30.2% in the CPI weighting, increased 4.3% in August, driven by oils and fats (+39.2%), fish and seafood (+8.1%), fruits (+3.2%) and vegetables (+2.9%).

Among the index of food items which recorded notable increases in August compared with the same period last year were cooking oil (+48.9%), Indian mackerel (+13.6%), cuttlefish (+8.2%), hardtail scad  (+7.7%), Spanish mackerel (+6.4%), prawn (+5.6 %), spinach (+4.8%), round cabbage (+4.7%) and choy sum (+2.6%). 

Meanwhile, decreases were registered in the index of some food items, such as chicken eggs (-5.9%), carrots (-2.4%) and onions (-0.5%).

The increase in the index for food and non-alcoholic beverages was reflected in most states in Malaysia, especially those in highly urbanised states, such as Kuala Lumpur, Selangor and Putrajaya, Penang, Johor and Malacca.

From January to August, the CPI increased 3.9% compared with the same period last year, mainly due to an increase in the food and non-alcoholic beverages index, which rose 4.2%. – September 21, 2017.