Bank Negara sees March inflation exceeding 8-year peak

Members of the public will be able to replace their ATM cards at their banks for free.

KUALA LUMPUR: Higher fuel costs probably pushed up Malaysia’s inflation rate this month to above the 4.5% rate posted in February, though there’s no evidence that price pressures are spreading more broadly in the economy, an official from the central bank said.

Last month’s inflation rate – which was the highest in more than eight years and exceeded the median estimate of 3.9% in a Bloomberg survey – wasn’t a surprise to the central bank, Fraziali Ismail, director of the economics department at Bank Negara, said in an interview in Kuala Lumpur. If oil prices stay where they are, it’s a “question of arithmetic” that inflation would accelerate, he said.