KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 24 — Malaysia’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) for January 2023 eased to 3.7 per cent from 3.8 per cent in December 2022, said the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DoSM).

In a statement today, DoSM said the index recorded 129.5 versus 124.9 in the same month of the preceding year, the slower increase was recorded since October 2022.

Chief statistician Datuk Seri Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the increase in Malaysia’s inflation in January 2023 was driven by restaurants and hotels (6.8 per cent), food and non-alcoholic beverages (6.7 per cent) and transport (4.0 per cent) groups.

"This was followed by furnishings, household equipment and routine household maintenance group (3.5 per cent); recreation services and culture (2.7 per cent); miscellaneous goods and services (2.3 per cent) and health (1.6 per cent), while housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels and education recorded an increase by 1.5 per cent and 1.3 per cent, respectively,” he said.

Meanwhile, both alcoholic beverages and tobacco and clothing and footwear inclined 0.8 per cent and 0.5 per cent, respectively, as compared to January 2022.

"The food and non-alcoholic beverages group, which contributed 29.5 per cent of total CPI weight, recorded a slower increase as compared to December 2022,” he said.

The increase in this group was mainly attributed to the component of food away from home, which moderated to 9.3 per cent as compared to 9.6 per cent in December 2022, while food at home increased by 5.1 per cent as compared to the previous month, Mohd Uzir said.

"Implementation of the Festive Season Maximum Price Scheme for the 2023 Chinese New Year, which started from January 15 to 29, and the setting of the ceiling price for cooking oil in bottles by the government eased the inflation of this group from continuing to rise,” he said.

He said all subgroups in food and non-alcoholic beverages recorded an increase between 0.7 and 9.1 per cent, while the subgroup of meat recorded an increase of 8.3 per cent as compared to January 2022, followed by milk, cheese and eggs (7.0 per cent); rice, bread and other cereals (6.7 per cent) and fruits (4.4 per cent).

"Sugar, jam, honey, chocolate and confectionery and fish and seafood increased by 3.4 per cent and 3.2 per cent, respectively.

"Meanwhile, the oils and fats subgroup moderated to 0.7 per cent,” he said.

Besides that, Mohd Uzir said the vegetables subgroup also recorded an increase of 1.0 per cent as compared to 0.9 per cent in December 2022.

However, it recorded a slight increase of 0.7 per cent as compared to 1.7 per cent in December 2022 on a monthly basis.

Meanwhile, inflation of transport registered a slower increase of 4.0 per cent in January 2023, as compared to 4.9 per cent in December 2022, contributed by the lower increase in the average price of unleaded petrol RON97 as compared to a year ago.

"On a year-on-year basis, the average price of unleaded petrol RON97 eased to 9.5 per cent at RM3.35 per litre as compared to 20.0 per cent recorded in December 2022,” he said.

He explained that the moderate increase in fuel prices was a direct impact of the decrease in the price of Brent crude oil (-2.9 per cent) to US$83.09 per barrel in January 2023.

Commenting on the inflation at the state level, the chief statistician said five states recorded increases above the national inflation level of 3.7 per cent, namely Wilayah Persekutuan Putrajaya (5.9 per cent), Sarawak (4.3 per cent), Selangor (4.2 per cent), Johor (3.8 per cent) and Pahang (3.8 per cent).

However, Kedah and Wilayah Persekutuan Labuan recorded the lowest increase of 2.2 per cent.

"All states registered an increase in the inflation of food and non-alcoholic beverages, with the highest increase recorded by Sarawak (8.4 per cent), followed by Selangor (8.1 per cent), Wilayah Persekutuan Putrajaya (7.4 per cent), Penang (6.9 per cent) and Johor (6.8 per cent),” he said.

Meanwhile, other states showed an increase below the national inflation of food and non-alcoholic beverages rate of 6.7 per cent in January 2023.

He said inflation for the monthly income group below RM3,000 increased 3.5 per cent from 125.8 in January 2022 to 130.2 in January 2023, while the inflation for restaurants and hotels also went up 7.3 per cent.

As for core inflation, Mohd Uzir said it registered a slower increase of 3.9 per cent in January 2023 as compared to the same month of the previous year.

On inflation of other countries, he said the Eurozone inflation eased to 8.5 per cent in January 2023 from 9.2 per cent in the previous month, the slower increase was mainly due to the slowing down of energy inflation at 17.2 per cent.

"Inflation rate in the United States also eased to 6.4 per cent in January 2023 as against 6.5 per cent in December 2022.

"In comparison to selected countries in the Asia Pacific region, the inflation rate in Malaysia (3.7 per cent) was lower than the Philippines (8.7 per cent), Indonesia (5.3 per cent), South Korea (5.2 per cent) and Thailand (5.0 per cent),” he added. — Bernama