Malaysia's inflation in April 2023 rises to 3.3 per cent - DoSM

KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysia’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) for April 2023 increased to 3.3 per cent with the index points standing at 130.0 from 125.9 in the same month last year, said the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DoSM).

In a statement today, chief statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the increment was driven mainly by restaurants and hotels (6.6 per cent) and food and non-alcoholic beverages (6.3 per cent).

Nevertheless, the slower increase in the transport group (2.3 per cent) compared to March 2023’s 2.4 per cent had offset a further rise in inflation to a certain extent, he said.

"The increase in Malaysia’s inflation was also due to the rise in furnishings, household equipment and routine household maintenance (3.0 per cent); miscellaneous goods and services (2.5 per cent); health (2.1 per cent) and recreation services and culture (1.8 per cent),” he said.

Housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels and education recorded an increase of 1.6 per cent, respectively.

Meanwhile, both alcoholic beverages and tobacco; and clothing and footwear inclined 0.6 per cent and 0.5 per cent, respectively.

Mohd Uzir said the food and non-alcoholic beverages group contributed 29.5 per cent of total CPI, noting that out of the 230 food and beverages items, 84.3 per cent recorded price increases as compared to April 2022.

He said the food at home component moderated to 5.0 per cent in April 2023 compared to 5.6 per cent recorded in the previous month.

The implementation of the Festive Season Maximum Price Scheme (SHMMP) for the period of 16 days starting April 15-30 had eased the inflation to a certain extent, Mohd Uzir said.

At the same time, food away from home also recorded a lower increase of 8.1 per cent versus March 2023’s 8.6 per cent.

"The Menu Rahmah initiative, introduced by the government, to some extent helped in easing the inflation of food away from home from continuing to soar,” he said.

At the state level, nine states recorded increases below the national inflation level of 3.3 per cent with Kedah and Labuan recording the lowest increase of 2.0 per cent, respectively.

Putrajaya (4.1 per cent), Sarawak (3.9 per cent), Selangor (3.8 per cent), Pahang (3.5 per cent) and Perak (3.4 per cent) recorded increases above the national inflation level.

Mohd Uzir added the monthly headline inflation in April 2023 increased marginally at 0.1 per cent at the same rate as recorded in the previous month, mainly contributed by miscellaneous goods and services (0.4 per cent), transport (0.3 per cent) and recreation services and culture (0.3 per cent).

Core inflation, which measures changes in the prices of all goods and services, excluding volatile prices of fresh food as well as administered prices of goods by the government, eased to 3.6 per cent from March 2023’s 3.8 per cent.

"The increase was mainly due to a slower increase in the food and non-alcoholic beverages group (7.2 per cent) and restaurants and hotels (6.6 per cent),” he said. -BERNAMA