Friday 29 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 26): AmBank Group Research expects inflation in 2019 to pick up as the impact of consumption tax and targeted fuel subsidy gradually kicks in.

In a report today, AmBank group chief economist and head of research Dr Anthony Dass said although inflation rose slightly in October by 0.6% year-on-year (y-o-y), it remained below the 1% level for the fifth consecutive year.

Dass, who is also adjunct professor in economics at University of New England, Sydney, Australia, said that likewise, core inflation picked up slightly, up 0.4% y-o-y in October.

“Hence, we revise our headline inflation projection downwards to 1.1% in 2018 from 1.5%

“We project inflation to hover around 1.8 %y-o-y.

“On that note, we foresee some room for Bank Negara Malaysia to raise rates in 2H2019 by 25bps to normalise at 3.50%,” he said.

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