THE national inflation rate fell to 1.5% in November 2023, says the statistics department.
Meanwhile, the country’s consumer price index (CPI) edged lower to 1.8% in October from 1.9% in September.
Chief statistician Uzir Mahidin said monthly headline inflation remained unchanged at 0.1% in November compared to October.
He said lower increases were recorded for restaurants and hotels at 4.3% (October 2023: 4.6%); food and non-alcoholic beverages at 2.6% (October 2023: 3.6%) and health at 2.3% (October 2023: 2.4%).
An increase was recorded for housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels at 1.7% (October 2023: 1.6%) and transport at 0.1% (October 2023: 0.0%), he said in a statement today.
Other increases were recorded for miscellaneous goods and services (0.4%); housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels (0.2%) and health (0.2%). These were offset by a decline in the food and non-alcoholic beverages group (-0.3%).
Core inflation (2.0%) still surpassed the overall national inflation rate (1.5%).
As for inflation at the state level, Uzir said most of the states recorded increases below the national inflation level of 1.5%. However, five places recorded increases above the national inflation level – Putrajaya (2.3%), Sarawak (2.0%), Perak (1.9%), Penang (1.8%) and Selangor (1.7%).
Compared with other countries, the inflation rate in Malaysia (1.5%) was lower than that of the Philippines (4.1%), Vietnam (3.5%), South Korea (3.3%) and Indonesia (2.9%). Nevertheless, the rate is higher than Thailand (-0.4%) and China (-0.5%). – Dec 22, 2023
