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This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on November 1, 2018

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s Producer Price Index (PPI) contracted for a second straight month in September, slipping 0.2% year-on-year (y-o-y) versus August’s 0.3% decline.

PPI measures the average change over time in prices by producers for domestically produced commodities.

In a statement yesterday, the Department of Statistics Malaysia chief statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the sectors which recorded a decrease in September were agriculture, forestry and fishing (-16.4%) and manufacturing (-1.7%).

Meanwhile, the index that edged up were mining (+28.9%), electricity and gas supply (+1%) and water supply (+0.4%), he added.

On a monthly basis, the PPI for local production grew 1.2% in September, the highest increase since rising 2% in January 2017, mainly due to the index of mining (+10.3%), manufacturing (+0.3%) and water supply (+0.2%).

In a report yesterday, MIDF Research foresees producer price inflation to contract by 1% this year amid higher base effects.

“We anticipate inflationary pressure from fuel-related items to pick up at steady pace, in tandem with steady gradual rise in global crude oil prices on top of the implementation of sales and service tax,” it added.

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