KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's inflation rate rose at a faster pace of 3.7% in August 2017 from a year ago, exceeding a forecast of a 3.4% increase, mainly fuelled by higher petrol prices.
The Statistics Department said on Wednesday the average price of one litre of RON95 petrol was RM2.12 in August versus RM1.75 a year ago. As for RON97, the average price increased to RM2.39 from RM2.10.
“Fuels & lubricants for personal transport equipment accounted for 7.8% of the CPI weights,” it said, nudging the Consumer Price Index (CPI) higher to 119.9 in August from 115.6 a year ago,
When based on a seasonally adjusted term, the overall CPI for August 2017 increased 0.9% compared to July 2017.
”Core inflation rose 2.4% in August 2017 compared with the same month of the previous year,” due to higher food and transport prices,” it said.
The department said the year-on-year rise in CPI for August was due to increases in the indices for transport (+11.7%), food and non-alcoholic beverages (+4.3%), restaurants and hotels (+2.8%), health (+2.7%).
Other groups which recorded increases were furnishings, household equipment and routine household maintenance (+2.7%) and housing, water, electricity, gas & other fuels (+2.4%).
“The index of transport group showed a significant increase of 11.7% on a year-on-year basis in August 2017, after rising 7.7% in July 2017,” it said.
The index for food and non-alcoholic beverages – which accounted for 30.2% in the CPI weights -- increased 4.3% in August 2017.
The increase was driven by food sub-group index which comprised of oils and fats (+39.2%), fish and seafood (+8.1%), fruits (+3.2%) and vegetables (+2.9%). As for “food away from home” index, it continued to rise in August 2017, up 4.8%.
The increase in the index for food and non-alcoholic beverages was reflected in most states in Malaysia especially those in highly urbanised states such as the Klang Valley, Penang, Johor and Melaka.
Six states recorded higher increases for food and non-alcoholic beverages index above the national level index for August 2017.
The index for food and non-alcoholic beverages rose 5% in Johor, 4.9% in Melaka, 4.8% in Penang, 4.8% in Sabah and Labuan, 4.8% in Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur and 4.5% in Kedah & Perlis.
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