MALAYSIA’S consumer price index (CPI) rose 1.3% in February to 122.4 from 120.8 a year ago.
In a statement on March 25, the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DoSM) said the increase in the overall index was driven by the index of miscellaneous goods and services (2.5%), transport (2.4%), housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels (1.6%) and communication (1.5%).
“Out of 552 items covered in CPI, 343 items showed an increase in February 2020 as against February 2019. On the contrary, 161 items declined while 48 items were unchanged.
“Based on the performance of 552 items by category of goods and services, non-durable goods (296 items) is a category that experienced the most price increase with 196 items, 84 items decreased and 16 items were unchanged as compared to services, semi-durable goods and durable goods,” said chief statistician Datuk Seri Mohd Uzir Mahidin.
On a monthly basis, CPI remained unchanged at 122.4 as compared to January 2020. Meanwhile, the CPI for January to February 2020 registered an increase of 1.4% compared with the same period last year.
Selangor and Putrajaya (1.6%), Kuala Lumpur (1.5%), Pahang (1.5%) and Johor (1.4%) have surpassed the national CPI rate of 1.3% in February a year ago.
All states except Melaka registered an increase in the index of food and non-alcoholic beverages. The highest increase was recorded by Johor (1.3%) followed by Selangor and Putrajaya (1.2%), Pulau Pinang (1%) and Perak (0.9%), surpassing the national index of 0.8% for food and non-alcoholic beverages in February. – March 25, 2020
