June inflation rate moderates to 0.8%, the lowest in 40 months

PETALING JAYA: Malaysia's inflation stood at 0.8% in June 2018, the lowest growth in the past 40 months following the abolishment of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) to zero rated starting June 1, according to the Department of Statistics.
This coupled with discounted price by retailers and the price control scheme for 22 selected items in conjunction with Hari Raya Aidilfitri.
On a monthly basis, CPI declined 1.2%, due to the decrease in all main groups. Inflation rose 1.8% in May.
A total 168,000 quotations were obtained from 21,800 establishments all over Malaysia showed decreases in all main groups except the transport group (+5.5%) in June 2018, especially for the sub-group fuels & lubricants for personal transport equipment (+10.2%).
The increase in the transport group was due to higher fuel prices in June 2018 against the same period a year ago, where the price of RON95 was RM2.20 in June 2018, RM2.58 for RON97 and RM2.18 for diesel.
Meanwhile, the overall index for food & non-alcoholic beverages, which accounted 29.5% in the CPI of weights, increased 0.8% in June 2018.
The CPI for the first six months of 2018 registered an increase of 1.6% over the same period last year.
Core inflation rose 0.1 per cent in June 2018 as compared with the same month of the previous year.
Three states surpassed the national CPI rate of 0.8%, namely Negeri Sembilan (+1.1%), Kuala Lumpur and Selangor & Wilayah Persekutuan Putrajaya 0.9%, respectively.