November inflation exceeds forecasts on higher food prices

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's inflation rate rose faster than expected in November, advancing by 1.8% from a year ago, due to higher food prices.

According to the Statistics Department data released on Wednesday, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose higher than a Bloomberg survey of 1.3%.

“Based on a seasonally adjusted term, the overall CPI for November 2016 increased by 1.0% as compared to October 2016,” it said. 

The department said November's CPI rose at higher rate of 1.8% to 116.9 from 114.8 from a year ago due to 3.8% rise in the indices for food and non-alcoholic beverage and housing, water, electricity, gas & other fuels (+2.1%).

Howewer, the indices of communication fell 2.7%, transport (-1.5%) and communication (-0.5%).

CPI for  January to November 2016 rose 2.1% as compared to the same period last year. This follows a 2.1% increase in January to October 2016 and a 2.2% increase in the period January to September 2016.