The Consumer Price Index (CPI), which is used to gauge inflation, increased at a moderate pace of 2.1 percent, year-on-year, in April 2016 to 114.3 compared with 2.6 percent registered in March 2016.

Among the major groups which recorded increases were the index for alcoholic beverages & tobacco (+20.1 percent), food & non-alcoholic beverages (4.2 percent), restaurants & hotels (+2.7 percent) as well as housing, water, electricity, gas & fuels (2.6 percent).

Miscellaneous goods and services was higher at 2.6 percent and furnishing, household equipment & routine household maintenance also gained 2.6 percent.

In addition, the department said the overall index was also influenced by the decrease in prices of the transport group by 5.5 percent, communication (-2.1 percent) and clothing & footwear (-0.7 percent).

On a monthly basis, the CPI for April 2016 increased 0.4 percent to 114.3 from 113.8 in March while on a cumulative basis, it rose 3.2 percent for the January to April 2016 period over the corresponding period in 2015.

The increase was attributed to the high expenditure for food & non-alcoholic beverages (+4.5 percent) as a result of an increase in the index for food at home (+4.5 percent).

The index for food away from home and index for coffee, tea, cocoa and non-alcoholic beverages recorded increases of 4.5 and 2.7 percent, respectively, in April.

It said among the subgroups of food at home which showed significant increases during this period were vegetables, (+8.3 percent), fish & seafood (+7.9 percent, fruits (6.5 percent) and meat (+3.3 percent).

While among the index food items which recorded notable increases in April 2016 compared with March were watermelon (+11.1), choy sam (+8.4 percent), garlic (+8.3 percent), cucumber (+8.3 percent), round cabbage (+7.9 percent), long bean (+4.5 percent) and red chillies (+4.3 percent).

The department said, of the 12 major groups, five recorded an increase, while two main groups registered a decline and five remained unchanged.

Meanwhile, core inflation which excluded most volatile items of fresh food, as well as administered prices of goods and services, rose 2.3 percent in April from a year ago.

- Bernama