KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s inflation came down to 1.9 percent in September 2023 with the index points recorded at 130.8 from 128.3 in the same month of the previous year, according to the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM).

Chief Statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said slower increases in restaurants & hotels at 4.4 percent and food & non-alcoholic beverages at 3.9 percent helped drive down inflation.

Apart from that, moderate growth was also recorded by miscellaneous goods & services (2.5 percent); health (2.2 percent); education (2.0 percent); housing, water, electricity, gas & other fuels (1.6 percent) and furnishings, household equipment & routine household maintenance (1.5 percent).

Meanwhile, alcoholic beverages & tobacco and recreation services & culture increased by 0.7 percent and 0.6 percent respectively.

He said in a statement today that the food & non-alcoholic beverages group contributed 29.5 percent of total consumer price index (CPI) weight, recording a moderate increase of 3.9 percent from August 2023’s 4.1 percent.

The component of food at home recorded an increase of 2.5 percent compared to 2.9 percent recorded in the previous month mainly driven by the sub-group of rice, bread & other cereals (4.1 percent), while the component of food away from home remained unchanged as in August 2023’s 5.9 percent.

Mohd Uzir said the monthly headline inflation in September 2023 up moderately by 0.1 percent mainly contributed by alcoholic beverages & tobacco and miscellaneous goods & services, which recorded an increase of 0.4 percent and 0.2 percent respectively.

The inflation for the third quarter of 2023 inclined 2.0 percent to 130.7 as compared to 128.1 in the same quarter of the preceding year.

On a quarterly basis, inflation increased 0.4 percent, the same rate recorded in the second quarter of 2023.

“The core inflation remained at 2.5 percent, the same rate as recorded in August 2023 but it still surpassed the overall national inflation rate (1.9 percent).

“The highest increase was recorded by food & non-alcoholic beverages group with a 5.1 percent. This was followed by restaurants & hotels (4.4 percent) and transport (2.9 pe cent).

In comparison to inflation of other countries, September’s inflation in Malaysia of 1.9 percent was lower than the inflation in the Philippines (6.1 percent), eurozone (4.3 percent), South Korea (3.7 percent), Vietnam (3.7 percent), the United States (3.7 percent) and Indonesia (2.3 percent).