Inflation falls 0.4 pct in February

KUALA LUMPUR: The Consumer Price Index (CPI) fell 0.4 per cent to 120.8 in February 2019 compared with 121.3 in the same month last year mainly due to a decline in transport cost, says the Statistics Department.

This marked the second consecutive month that the CPI had decreased after January's 0.7 per cent drop.

On a monthly basis, headline inflation rose by 0.2 per cent compared with January 2019, the department said in a statement today.

Of the main groups under the overall index, the transport index, which contributed 14.6 per cent of overall weight, decreased the most year-on-year (-6.8 per cent).

However, the department said, the fall was countered by the increase in the indexes of housing, water, electricity, gas & other fuels (+2.0 per cent) and of food & nonalcoholic beverages (+1.0 per cent). The latter increased to 133.1 from 131.8 in the corresponding month of 2018, contributing 29.5 per cent of CPI weights.

Other rising indexes were restaurants & hotels (+1.3 per cent), education (+1.3 per cent) and alcoholic beverages & tobacco (+1.1 per cent), the department said.

For the January-February 2019 period, the overall CPI declined by 0.5 per cent compared with the same period last year.

The Statistics Department said all states recorded a decrease of between 0.2 per cent and 1.4 per cent in February 2019 compared with the same month in the previous year except the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur (+0.3 per cent) and Penang (+0.2 per cent).