KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's inflation moderated to 1.7% in December 2024, lower than forecast, with slower increases in the costs of personal care, social protection and miscellaneous good and services, among other groups.
The country's consumer price index (CPI) in December showed slower expansion as compared to 1.9% in the previous month of November, but remained higher than the 1.5% increase from a year earlier in December 2023. Analysts polled by Reuters had projected a rate of inflation of 1.8%.
This brought the annual inflation rate in 2024 to 1.8%, a second consecutive year of decline since 2022.
Meanwhile, core inflation increased slower at 1.6% in December 2024 as compared to 1.8% in November 2024.
According to the National Statistics Department, there were slower cost increases in the recreation, sport and culture (1.7%); health (1.1%); and furnishing, household equipment and routine household maintenance (0.4%) groups.
However, there was a faster speed of inflation for restaurant and accommodation services (2.9%), and food and beverages (2.7%).
In the food and beverages group, which contributes to 29.8% of the total CPI weight, showed a 2.7% increase in December. This was in part contributed by a 0.9% increase in the food at home subgroup due to the increase in the cost of vegetables.
The food away from home subgroup showed an increase of 4.8%, the same as in the previous month.
For transport, inflation came in at 0.4%. The subgroup of purchase of vehicles, however, declined at 0.9% due to price reduction offered as rebates to new car buyers.
