THE country’s latest inflation rate has increased 4.4% from 122.5 in July 2021 to 127.9 in July 2022, with rising food costs (6.9%) attributed as the main contributor.
This was revealed today in the latest Consumer Price Index (CPI), which was released by the Chief Statistician’s Office of the Statistics Department (DOSM).
The increase in Malaysia’s inflation was also due to the low base effect as a result of the increased electricity bill discount from five to 40% for domestic consumers, under the People’s Protection and Economic Recovery Package (Pemulih) programme from July to September 2021.
A low base effect in business and economics is the tendency of a small absolute change from a low initial amount to be translated into a large percentage change.
Apart from the food group, all other groups also continued to record increases in July except for communication, which remained unchanged as compared to the same month of the previous year.
However, some food items showed a slower growth momentum as compared to June 2022, such as fish and seafood (4.2%) and vegetables (7.1%):
On the other hand, the momentum of restaurants and hotels grew by 5.8%, followed by transport (5.6%), furnishings, household equipment and routine household maintenance (4.0%) and housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels (3.8%).
Similarly, recreation services and culture registered an increase (2.5%), as did miscellaneous goods and services (2.1%) and education (1.2%).
Meanwhile, the half-year inflation rate for January to July 2022 increased 2.8% as compared to the same period of the previous year. On a monthly basis, the inflation increased 0.4% as compared to June 2022.
The increase was mainly attributed to restaurants and hotels (0.8%) and food and non-alcoholic beverages (0.7%), followed by furnishings, household equipment and routine household maintenance (0.6%) and transport (0.5%).
Besides that, core inflation and inflation without fuel registered an increase of 3.4% and 4.2%, respectively, in July 2022 as compared to the same month of the preceding year.
Inflation for all states and federal territories registered increases in inflation, while three areas (Selangor, Putrajaya and Johor) showed increases above the national inflation level of 4.4%. – Aug 29, 2022
Main pic credit: Liputan6.com
