MALAYSIA’S consumer price index (CPI) increased moderately by 2.2% to 125.2 in February 2022 from 122.5 in the same month of the preceding year, driven mainly by the increase in food inflation, Department of Statistics Malaysia (DoSM) said.

Chief statistician Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the increase surpassed the average inflation in Malaysia for the period 2011 to February 2022 of 1.9%.

“The increase in food inflation, which is the largest contributor to the overall weight of CPI, continued to be a major contributor to the country’s inflation.

“The 3.7% increase in food and non-alcoholic beverages group was largely due to an increase in the component for food at home, which increased 4.1% compared to the same month of the preceding year,” he said in a statement, adding that the increase was mainly for raw cooking materials such as chicken (14.2%) and eggs (13.5%),” he said in a statement.

Meanwhile, food away from home also increased 3.6% compared to 3.1% recorded in January 2022.

The rise in headline inflation was mainly driven by the increase in transport group (3.9 per cent) and food & non-alcoholic beverages (3.7%).

This was followed by furnishings, household equipment and routine household maintenance (3.2%); restaurants and hotels (2.6%) and recreation services and culture (1.6%).

He also said the transport group increased 3.9% due to the low base effect with the setting of the RON95 unleaded petrol ceiling price effective March 2021 (RM2.05), which was higher compared to the average price of RM1.96 a litre in February 2021.

On a monthly basis, the CPI increased by 0.2% compared to January 2022, attributed to recreation services and culture (0.4%); restaurants and hotels (0.4%); and housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels (0.3%).

Elaborating further, Uzir said inflation for the group income below RM3,000 increased 2.4% in February 2022 as against February 2021, with the food and non-alcoholic beverages group increasing 3.9%, 0.2 percentage points higher than the same group in the headline inflation.

Core inflation measures changes in the prices of all goods and services, excluding volatile items of fresh food as well as prices of goods controlled by the government. It registered an increase of 1.8% in February 2022 compared to the same month of the previous year.

“The increase in world oil prices and the conflict between Ukraine and Russia may affect the supply chain and have a ripple effect across the global economy.

“This will likely have implications on the transportation cost and thus national inflation. Currently, the government is still maintaining the RON95 unleaded petrol and diesel prices to protect consumers from the effects of oil price increases in the global market,” he explained.

As for the CPI by states, he noted that all states recorded increases in CPI with two states showing increases above the national inflation level of 2.2% with the highest increase recorded by Selangor & Wilayah Persekutuan Putrajaya (2.9%). – Bernama, March 25, 2022.