October CPI up 3.7 per cent

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s Consumer Price Index (CPI), which measures headline inflation, rose 3.7 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) to 120.0 in October 2017 from 115.7 previously.

In a statement yesterday, the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DoS) said several major indices had recorded increases, including food and non-alcoholic beverages (+4.4 per cent), restaurants and hotels (+2.7 per cent), health (+2.4 per cent), furnishings, household equipment and routine household maintenance (+2.6 per cent) and housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels (+2.4 per cent).

“The transport group index also showed a significant increase of 12.1 per cent y-o-y in October 2017, following the 15.8 per cent rise in September 2017.

“Fuels and lubricants for personal transport equipment accounted for 7.8 per cent of the CPI weights,” it said.

Meanwhile, the average price of one litre of RON95 petrol rose to RM2.18 in October 2017 compared with RM1.80 in October 2016.

For RON97, the average price rose to RM2.48 in October 2017 compared with RM2.15 in the same month last year.

On another note, four states recorded higher increases y-o-y for the food and non-alcoholic beverages index in October 2017, with Johor rising by 5.1 per cent, Melaka (5.1 per cent), Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur (4.8 per cent) and Kedah and Perlis (4.5 per cent). — Bernama