KUALA LUMPUR – Malaysia’s inflation eased to 3.8% in December 2022 as compared to 4.0% in November 2022, thanks to a slower increase in the food and non-alcoholic beverages group, said the Statistics Department.
Overall, inflation for 2022 increased to 3.3% as compared to 2.5% recorded in 2021, chief statistician Datuk Seri Mohd Uzir Mahidin said.
During the last month of 2022, the consumer price index (CPI) stood at 129.2 against 124.5 in the same month of the preceding year.
The food and non-alcoholic beverages group grew 6.8% in December 2022, down from 7.3% in the previous month, followed by transport (4.9%) and furnishings, household equipment and routine household maintenance (3.7%), which also recorded a slower increase against November 2022.
However, restaurants and hotels continued to show an increase of 7.4% against 7.0% in November 2022.
Malaysia’s inflation was also contributed by the increase in recreation services and culture (2.4%), miscellaneous goods and services (2.3%) and housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels (1.5%).
Education and health groups also registered an increase of 1.4% and 1.3% respectively.
Both alcoholic beverages and tobacco and clothing and footwear posted marginal increases of 0.7% and 0.4% respectively.
For 2022, the increase was mainly attributed to food and non-alcoholic beverages (5.8%), restaurants and hotels (5.0%) and transport (4.7%).
‘’The conflict between Russia and Ukraine and the global food price increases in 2022 contributed to the increase in inflation for this year.
“Meanwhile, inflation for the fourth quarter of 2022 inclined 3.9% to 128.9 as against 124.1 in the same quarter of the preceding year,’’ he said in a statement.
On a quarterly basis, inflation increased by 0.6% as compared to the third quarter of 2022.
Monthly headline inflation in December 2022 increased moderately to 0.2% as compared to 0.3% in November 2022 mainly driven by the restaurants and hotels (0.7%) and food and non-alcoholic beverages (0.5%) groups.
“The food and non-alcoholic beverages group, which contributes 29.5% of total CPI weight, recorded a moderate increase as compared to November 2022.
‘’The increase in this group was mainly attributed to the component of food at home, which recorded a moderate increase of 4.9% as compared to 5.8% in November 2022, while food away from home increased by 9.6% as compared to November 2022 of 9.6%,’’ he said.
Uzir highlighted that the implementation of the festive season maximum price scheme (Christmas) started from December 23 to 27, 2022 and the setting of the ceiling price for cooking oil in bottles by the government helped in easing the inflation of this group from continuing to soar.
Meanwhile, transport inflation showed a slower increase of 4.9% in December 2022 as compared to a year ago (November 2022: 5.0%), contributed by the lower increase in the average price of the RON97 unleaded petrol.
Thus, the operation of the personal transport equipment subgroup moderated to 4.3% as against 5.1% in November 2022.
The average price of RON97 unleaded petrol increased by 20.0% (RM3.60 per litre) as compared to RM3.00 per litre in the same month of the preceding year.
The increase in fuel prices especially RON97 unleaded petrol was influenced by the increase in the price of Brent crude oil by 8.9% to US$80.90 (RM347.43) per barrel in December 2022.
As for states, four states recorded increases above the national inflation level of 3.8%, namely the Federal Territory of Putrajaya (7.9%), Selangor (4.5%), Sarawak (4.1%), and Johor (3.9%).
Kedah recorded the lowest increase of 2.2%.
Meanwhile, the inflation for the income group below RM3,000 increased 3.6% from 125.3 in December 2021 to 129.8 in December 2022, due to the increase in the food and non-alcoholic beverages group at 6.1%.
In addition, the inflation for restaurants and hotels also went up 7.8% followed by furnishings, household equipment and routine household maintenance (4.2%), transport (2.6%), miscellaneous goods and services (2.2%), and recreation services and culture (1.8%).
Uzir said core inflation, which measures changes in the prices of all goods and services without taking into account the volatile prices of fresh food as well as administered prices of goods by the government, registered an increase of 4.1% in December 2022 as compared to the same month of the previous year.
The highest increase was recorded by the food and non-alcoholic beverages group with 8.1%, followed by the restaurants and hotels group (7.4%); transport (7.3%); furnishings, household equipment and routine household maintenance (3.7%), and recreation services and culture (2.4%).
In comparison to countries in the Asia-Pacific region, the inflation rate in Malaysia of 3.8% was lower than the Philippines (8.1%), Thailand (5.9%), Indonesia (5.5%), and South Korea (5.0%). – Bernama, January 20, 2023
