KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s inflation rate, as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for August 2015, rose higher than expected due to higher costs in most of the major groups.
The Statistics Department said on Wednesday the CPI increased by 3.1% to 113.9 compared with 110.5 a year ago. This was above a Bloomberg survey of 3% increase.
“Overall, the index for food & non-alcoholic Beverages (weight: 30.3) rose 4.2% on a year-on-year basis in August 2015. The index for non-food (weight: 69.7) recorded an increase of 2.5%,” it said.
The department said alcoholic beverages and tobacco group rose the most by 13.4%; health (4.7%); restaurants and hotels (+4.5%); miscellaneous goods and services (+4.5%); food and non-alcoholic beverages (+4.2%) and furnishing, household equipment and routine household maintenance (+3.7%),” it said.
“These six groups of goods and services which weighted 47.4 contributed 75.7% to the increase in the CPI for the month of August 2015,” it said.
The department said on a monthly basis, CPI for August 2015 remained unchanged at 113.9.
“CPI for the first eight months in 2015 registered an increase by 1.9% as compared to the same period last year,” it said.
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