Malaysia’s inflation continues to climb, exceeds survey

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's inflation rate continued to rise, with the latest data showing that it rose 3.4% in January from a year ago and exceeding a Bloomberg survey of 3.3%.

The Statistics Department said on Wednesday the inflation rate, measured by the Consumer Price Index, also increased by 0.6% from December. The CPI had increased by 3.2% in December.

Elaborating on the details, the department said the CPI for January 2014 increased by 3.4% to 109.5 from 105.9 a year ago, due to increases in all the main groups except miscellaneous goods & services.

"The index for Food & Non-Alcoholic Beverages and Non-Food for January 2014 showed increases of 4.2% and 3.0% on-year.

"When compared with the previous month, the index for Food & Non-Alcoholic Beverages and Non-Food increased by 0.8% and 0.4%," it added.

The department said the urban and rural CPI for January 2014 increased by 3.5% and 3.1% on-year. When compared with December, the CPI for urban and rural increased by 0.7% and 0.2% respectively.

As for the income group below RM3,000, inflation increased by 3.5% from 106.3 to 110.0. When compared with December, the CPI rose 0.5%.

The index for Food & Non-Alcoholic Beverages for January 2014 showed an increase of 4.2% on-year.