Friday 29 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 29): AmBank Group Research said it found Malaysia’s headline inflation is still below 1% for the fourth straight month.

In a note today, AmBank group chief economist and head of research Dr Anthony Dass said the low inflation of below 1% is partly due to the RON95 fuel subsidy.

He said September inflation grew slightly to 0.3% year-on-year (y/y) despite the return of the SST in September.

“Meanwhile, the underlying inflation has picked up. Core inflation grew 0.3% y/y after being in deflation for the past two consecutive months.

“Going forward, we expect inflation to gradually trend upwards,” he said.

But Dass said the upside will be muted by the higher base effects.

“Thus we expect headline inflation to average around 1.5% for 2018 from 3.8% in 2017,” he said.  

Dass said inflationary pressure is expected to come from the slightly weaker ringgit and from the gradual rise in global commodity prices.

“Still, we expect Bank Negara Malaysia to maintain its current monetary stance for the rest of 2018,” he said.

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