PETALING JAYA: Malaysia’s headline inflation rate remained at 1.5% in December 2023, with the consumer price index (CPI) recorded at 131.2 points versus 129.2 a year earlier, said the statistics department.
Chief statistician Uzir Mahidin said there were lower increases in the restaurants and hotels group (3.7%; November 2023: 4.3%), miscellaneous goods and services (2.7%; November 2023: 2.3%) as well as food and non-alcoholic beverages (2.3%; November 2023: 2.6%).
“Main groups that showed increases were health (2.5%; November 2023: 2.3%) and transport (0.3%; November 2023: 0.1%),” he said in a statement today.
The annual headline inflation in 2023 rose by 2.5% compared with 3.3% in 2022.
The statistics department said this is due to a 5.6% increase in restaurants and hotels (2022: 5%), a 4.8% rise in food and non-alcoholic beverages (2022: 5.8%), and a 2.4% growth in miscellaneous goods and services (2022: 2%).
It said monthly headline inflation inclined at 0.2% (November 2023: 0%) with a few main groups posting increases on a monthly basis, namely recreation services, and culture at 0.4%, food and non-alcoholic beverages at 0.3%, and transport at 0.3%.
Meanwhile, core inflation increased at a slower pace of 1.9% in December 2023 (November 2023: 2%) and still surpassed the overall national inflation rate of 1.5%.
This was due to the restaurants and hotels as well as food and non-alcoholic beverages groups which recorded moderate increases of 3.7% and 3.2%, respectively, in December 2023.
In comparison to inflation of other selected countries, the inflation in Malaysia (1.5%) was lower than inflation in the Philippines (3.9%), Vietnam (3.6%), the US (3.4%), South Korea (3.2%), the Eurozone (2.9%) and Indonesia (2.6%).
However, the rate was higher than Thailand (-0.8%) and China (-0.3%).
