November CPI up 0.2% year-on-year

Lay Hong expects egg prices to rise in the coming quarters as the industry takes action to regularise supply.

KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian consumer price index (CPI) rose 0.2% in November to 121.0 compared with 120.8 recorded in the same period a year ago, said the Department of Statistics.

The rise was due to the higher price for housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels (+2.0 per cent), education (+1.4 per cent), restaurants and hotels (+1.2 per cent), food and non-alcoholic beverages (+1.1 per cent) and alcoholic beverages and tobacco (+1.0 per cent).

However, the inflation index in November was slightly lower compared to the 0.6 per cent registered in October.

“On a monthly basis, the CPI increased 0.2 per cent as compared to October, while for the period of January-November the index registered an increase of 1.0 per cent as compared to the same period last year,” Chief Statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said in a statement.

On the same note, he said Malaysia also reported that in terms of overall CPI, four states surpassed the national CPI rate of 0.2 per cent recorded in November as compared to the same month last year.

The states were Federal Territory Kuala Lumpur (+1.2 per cent), Negeri Sembilan (+0.6 per cent), Penang (+0.6 per cent) and Johor (+0.3 per cent). Selangor and the Federal Territory Putrajaya recorded the same rate as the national CPI.

Meanwhile, the higher increase in the index for food and non-alcoholic beverages was reflected in most states in Malaysia.

Four states recorded higher increases for food and non-alcoholic beverages index above the national index level (+1.1 per cent) in November as compared to the corresponding month of 2017.

The index for food and non-alcoholic beverages rose 4.8 per cent in the Federal Territory Kuala Lumpur, followed by Negeri Sembilan (+1.5 per cent), Penang (+1.3 per cent) and Selangor and the Federal Territory Putrajaya (+1.2 per cent). - Bernama