PETALING JAYA: Malaysia’s consumer price index (CPI) rose 0.2% to 121.1 in December 2018 compared with 120.9 in December 2017, driven by higher price for housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels, which rose 2%.
Chief Statistician Datuk Seri Dr. Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the higher CPI was also due to higher price for restaurants and hotels (1.3%), alcoholic beverages and tobacco (1.1%), education (1.1%) as well as food and non-alcoholic beverages (0.7%).
“On a monthly basis, CPI increased 0.1% as compared with November 2018. CPI for the period of January-December 2018 registered an increase of 1.0% as compared with the same period last year,” he said in a statement today.
In terms of overall CPI, three states surpassed the national CPI rate of 0.2% recorded in December 2018. The three states are Kuala Lumpur (1.0%), Penang (0.6%) and Negeri Sembilan (0.4%); while Selangor and 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.
Data from the Department of Statistics revealed that three states recorded higher increases for food and non-alcoholic beverages index above the national index level (0.7%) in December 2018 compared with December 2017.
The index for food and non-alcoholic beverages rose 3.9% in Kuala Lumpur, followed by Penang (1.0%) and Negeri Sembilan (0.8%). Selangor and Putrajaya recorded the same rate as the national index level for food and non-alcoholic beverages.
