Malaysia's Sept inflation at six month high

Fuel factor: Analysts say the moderation in inflation in June was mainly driven by a decline in the transport component, reflecting lower fuel prices.

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia recorded an inflation of 4.3% year-on-year (y-o-y) in September, the highest since March, mainly due to the rise in transportation costs and prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages.

According to the latest figures released by the Statistics Department on Friday, transportation costs in September rose significantly by nearly 15.8% y-o-y, the highest among the components of consumer price index (CPI) which measures inflation. Food and non-alcoholic beverages prices increased by 4.6% y-o-y, second only to transportation costs.

However, the clothing and footwear and communications sub-group indices registered decline in overall prices by nearly 0.3% y-o-y in September. 

The Statistics Department said that the surge in transportation costs was largely attributed to the increase in average fuel price last month.

“The index of transport group showed a significant increase of 15.8% y-o-y in September 2017, after rising 11.7% in August.

“The average price of 1 litre of RON95 petrol was RM2.19 in September as compared to RM1.70 a year earlier. As for RON97, the average price increased to RM2.48 last month in contrast to RM2.05 in September 2016,” it said in a press release.

On the other hand, the food and non-alcoholic beverages sub-group index saw an increase due to the sharp surge in the prices of oils and fats prices, which rose by nearly 40% y-o-y.

Note that, food and non-alcoholic beverages accounted 30.2% in the CPI weights.

“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 Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, Putrajaya, Pulau Pinang, Johor and Melaka,” said the Statistics Department.

Bloomberg indicated that September’s inflation was in line with expectation, albeit being slightly higher than August’s 3.7% inflation rate.