KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s inflation rate continued to increase at a slower rate, falling to 1.5 percent in November 2023 with the index points recorded at 130.9 against 129.0 in the same month of the previous year, the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) said. 

Malaysia’s consumer price index (CPI) edged lower to 1.8 percent in October, from 1.9 percent in September.

Chief statistician Datuk Seri Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the increase was driven by the lower increases in restaurants and hotels at 4.3 percent (October 2023: 4.6 percent); food and non-alcoholic beverages, 2.6 percent (October 2023: 3.6 percent) and health, 2.3 percent (October 2023: 2.4 percent). 

“In addition, some of the other main groups that showed an increase were housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels, 1.7 percent (October 2023: 1.6 percent) and transport, 0.1 percent (October 2023: 0.0 percent,” he said in a statement today on the CPI for November.

Mohd Uzir noted that the monthly headline inflation remained unchanged in November compared to October at 0.1 percent.

He said a few main groups continued to record increases monthly, namely miscellaneous goods and services (0.4 percent); housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels (0.2 percent) and health (0.2 percent).

However, it was offset by a decline in the food and non-alcoholic beverages group (-0.3 percent). 

“The core inflation (2.0 percent) still surpassed the overall national inflation rate (1.5 percent). This was due to restaurants and hotels and food and non-alcoholic beverages which recorded moderate increases of 4.3 percent and 3.7 percent respectively in November 2023,” DOSM said.

As for inflation at the state level, Mohd Uzir said most of the states recorded increases below the national inflation level at 1.5 percent. 

However, five states recorded increases above the national inflation level namely Putrajaya (2.3 percent), Sarawak (2.0 percent), Perak (1.9 percent), Penang (1.8 percent) and Selangor (1.7 percent). 

In comparison to inflation in other countries, inflation in Malaysia (1.5 percent) was lower than inflation in Philippines (4.1 percent), Vietnam (3.5 percent), Republic of Korea (3.3 percent) and Indonesia (2.9 percent).

However, the rate is higher than Thailand (-0.4 percent) and China (-0.5 percent).