The rising cost of living is having a disproportionate impact on lower-income households in Malaysia, with those in urban areas the hardest hit, according to the World Bank.

Citing data from the Statistics Department on household expenditure, the World Bank said there was a "marked unevenness" in household spending, with lower income groups spending almost 40 percent of their expenditure on food, compared with about 25 percent among the rich.

"As a result, the poorest households have been disproportionately affected by the build-up of inflationary pressures over the past years with higher relative increases in food prices.

"This effect has been even more pronounced in urban areas as food price inflation has been higher compared to that in the rural areas," it said in a Malaysian Economic Monitor report...