KUALA LUMPUR (March 25): The Malaysian Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 1.3% year-on-year (y-o-y) to 122.4 points, from 120.8 points in February 2019.

In a statement today, Chief Statistician Malaysia Datuk Sri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said of the 552 items covered under the index, 343 items showed an increase last month against February 2019.

“On the contrary, 161 items declined while 48 items were unchanged. Based on the performance of 552 items by category of goods and services, Non-Durable Goods (296 items) is a category that experienced the most price increase with 196 items, 84 items decreased and 16 items were unchanged compared with Services, Semi-Durable Goods and Durable Goods,” he said.

The increase in the overall index was driven by a 2.5% increase in the Miscellaneous Goods & Services Index, 2.4% increase in the transport index, 1.5% increase in the Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and other fuels index and a 1.5% increase in the communication index.

On a monthly basis, the CPI remained unchanged between January and February. For the first two months of the year (2M2020), the index saw a y-o-y increase of 1.4%.

In particular, Putrajaya, Kuala Lumpur, Pahang and Johor exceeded the national CPI rate of 1.3%. Putrajaya led the pack with 1.6%, followed by Kuala Lumpur (1.5%), Pahang (1.5%) and Johor (1.4%) compared with February 2019.

Save for Melaka, all states registered increases in the Food & Non-Alcoholic Beverages index. 

“The highest increase was recorded by Johor (1.3%) followed by Selangor & Wilayah Persekutuan Putrajaya (1.2%), Pulau Pinang (1.0%) and Perak (0.9%) and it surpassed the national index of 0.8% for Food & Non-Alcoholic Beverages in February 2020,” the statement read.