Malaysia’s Inflation Remains At 2% For August 2023

The Department of Statistics Malaysia has released its latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) report. The key finding from this report is that inflation for the month of August 2023 has remained the same.

The reason for inflation holding steady as the month before was reportedly driven by the lower increases in August.

Following are the highlights from the Consumer Price Index movements:

• Restaurants & Hotels (4.7%)
• Food & Non-Alcoholic Beverages (4.1%)
• Furnishings, Household Equipment & Routine Household Maintenance (1.7%)

In terms of the general price level, the index point was still at a higher level registering 130.8 as compared to 128.2 in August 2022.

Price increase in food components range from 3.3 – 5.9%

Looking at the food and non-alcoholic beverage group, food at home recorded a small increase of 2.9% in August, compared to the 3.0% in July. According to the DOSM, the increase in food prices in August for food at home was primarily driven by meat, followed by rice, bread and other cereals and milk, cheese and egg subgroups.

Meanwhile, the component of Food away from home showed a slowdown to 5.9% as compared to 6.2% recorded in July 2023.

The monthly headline inflation in August 2023 saw a marginal increase to 0.2%, as opposed to the 0.1% seen in July 2023. The main factors influencing this increase can be attributed to Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas & Other Fuels (0.5%); Health, (0.5%) and Restaurants & Hotels, (0.3%). Meanwhile, core inflation rose by 2.5% as compared to 2.8%recorded in July 2023.

Source: DOSM

Nine states record inflation below national average

At the state level, nine states recorded increases below the national inflation level of 2.0 per cent. On the other hand, seven states recorded increases above the national inflation level. These are Sarawak (3.4%), Wilayah Persekutuan Putrajaya (2.7%), Perlis (2.4%), Perak (2.3%), Selangor (2.3%), Pahang (2.2%) and Melaka (2.1%).

In comparison to inflation of other countries, inflation in Malaysia (2.0%) was lower than inflation in the Eurozone (5.3%), Philippines (5.3%), Republic of Korea (3.4%), Indonesia (3.3%) and Vietnam (3.0%). However, the rate is higher than Thailand (0.9%) and China (0.1%).

Read More: How Lifestyle Inflation Hurts Your Finances