KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's inflation was rose to 2.8 per cent in May 2023 at 130.2 points, compared with 126.6 in the same month of the previous year, indicating an increase in the overall consumer price level.
According to the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM), inflation was driven by higher increase in Restaurants & Hotels (6.7 per cent) as compared with April 2023 (6.6 per cent).
Nevertheless, DOSM said the slower increase in some groups as compared with the previous month such as food & non-alcoholic beverages (5.9 per cent), transport (1.0 per cent) and furnishings, household equipment & routine household maintenance (2.7 per cent) to a certain extent offset Malaysia's inflation from continuing to rise higher.
"The weight for the food & non-alcoholic beverages group (29.5 per cent), transport (14.6 per cent) and restaurants & hotels (2.9 per cent) comprise 47.0 per cent of the total weight for CPI which have a significant impact on the inflation rate and the cost of living," it said.
Apart from that, DOSM said the increase in Malaysia's inflation for May 2023 is also due to the rise in miscellaneous goods & services, furnishings, household equipment & routine household maintenance, health and education.
"Housing, water, electricity, gas & other fuels and recreation services & culture recorded an increase of 1.8 per cent respectively.
"This was followed by alcoholic beverages & tobacco (0.7 per cent) and clothing & footwear (0.4 per cent)," it said.
DOSM said the monthly headline inflation in May 2023 increased by 0.2 per cent as compared with April 2023 (0.1 per cent).
Meanwhile, it said core inflation eased to 3.5 per cent in May compared to 3.6 per cent in April.
At the state level, DOSM said nine states recorded increases below the national inflation level of 2.8 per cent with Wilayah Persekutuan Labuan recording the lowest increase of 1.2 per cent in May 2023.
However, seven states recorded increases above the national inflation level namely Sarawak (3.5 per cent), Selangor (3.3 per cent), Perak (3.2 per cent), Wilayah Persekutuan Putrajaya (3.1 per cent), Pahang (3.1 per cent), Melaka (3.1 per cent) and Sabah (3.0 per cent).
"For comparison with other countries, Malaysia recorded a lower inflation rate than the Eurozone (6.1 per cent), Philippines (6.1 per cent), United States of America (4.0 per cent), Indonesia (4.0 per cent) and South Korea (3.3 per cent)," it added.