April inflation up 4.4% from year ago on fuel hike

The average price of one litre of RON95 petrol was RM2.21 in April 2017 compared with RM1.70 a year ago.

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's inflation rate rose 4.4% in April from a year ago mainly due to the petrol price hike, the Statistics Department said.

Inflation was just below the 4.5% annual pace forecast in a Reuters poll, and was down from March's 5.1%, the highest rate in eight years.

The department said on Wednesday that the increase in the consumer price index (CPI) in April were mainly due to the indices for transport (+16.7%), food and non-alcoholic beverages (+4.1%).

The other groups were recreation services & culture (+3.0%), health (+2.8%), restaurants and hotels (+2.4%) and housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels (+2.2%).

“The index of transport group showed a significant increase of 16.7% on a year-on-year basis in April 2017, after rising 23.0% in March 2017,” it said. 

The average price of one litre of RON95 petrol was RM2.21 in April 2017 compared with RM1.70 a year ago. As for RON97, the average price increased to RM2.48 in April 2017 from RM2.05 in April 2016. Fuels & lubricants for personal transport equipment accounted for 7.8% of the CPI weights.

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

On a monthly basis, the index for Food & Non-Alcoholic Beverages increased 0.1 per cent in April 2017, after declining 0.3 per cent in March 2017. Meanwhile, the index for Non-Food decreased 0.4 per cent in April 2017 compared with the preceding month.

Based on a seasonally adjusted term, the overall CPI for April 2017 decreased 0.3 per cent as compared to March 2017.

Core inflation has remained stable at 2.5% in April 2017 from a year ago. Among the major groups which  led to the higher core rate were price increases for food and non-alcoholic Beverages (+4.1%), recreation services and culture (+3.0%), transport (+3%), health (+2.8%) and housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels (+2.7%).

 CPI for the period January to April 2017 registered an increase of 4.3 per cent as compared to the same period last year. The index for food and non-alcoholic beverages were the main contributor to the CPI rise in the period January to April 2017, registered an increase of 4.1%.