KINIBIZ Malaysia’s August inflation – as measured by the consumer price index (CPI) - grew 3.1 percent year-on-year (y-o-y), according to data released by the Statistics Department.

The rise in the CPI was led by costlier alcoholic beverages and tobacco which increased by 13.4 percent, healthcare (4.7 percent), restaurants and hotels (4.5 percent), miscellaneous goods and services (4.5 percent), food and non-alcoholic beverages (4.2 percent), and furnishing, household equipment and routine household maintenance (3.7 percent), among others.

The August inflation had come in slightly above analysts’ expectation, when Standard Chartered Bank Research, among others, forecast CPI in August to ease to 2.9 percent due to downward adjustment of domestic fuel costs. In July, CPI rose 3.3 percent y-o-y.

Cumulative CPI for the first eight months in 2015 therefore come in at 1.9 percent, as compared to the corresponding period last year.

Bank Negara Malaysia governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz earlier anticipated full-year inflation rate to come within the 2 percent to 3percent range, despite inflationary pressures from a weaker ringgit and implementation of the goods and services tax starting April this year.

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