KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's inflation remained at two per cent in August with the index points standing at 130.8 compared with 128.2 in the same month last year.
Compared with other countries, the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DoSM) noted inflation in Malaysia was lower than inflation in the Eurozone (5.3 per cent), Philippines (5.3 per cent), Republic of Korea (3.4 per cent), Indonesia (3.3 per cent) and Vietnam (3.0 per cent). However, the rate is higher than Thailand (0.9 per cent) and China (0.1 per cent).
DoSM Chief Statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the increase in inflation was driven by the slower increase in restaurants and hotels 4.7 per cent (July 2023: 5.0 per cent) and food and non-alcoholic beverages, 4.1 per cent.
This was followed by miscellaneous goods and services and health groups which increased by 2.4 per cent respectively.
"Food and non-alcoholic beverages group which contributes 29.5 per cent of total consumer price index (CPI) weight recorded a moderate increase of 4.1 per cent (July 2023: 4.4 per cent).
"The component of food at home recorded a marginal increase of 2.9 per cent as compared to 3.0 per cent recorded in the previous month," he said in a statement.
The rise in the component was mainly driven by the subgroup of meat (5.8 per cent) followed by rice, bread and other cereals and milk, cheese and eggs subgroups which increased by 4.0 per cent respectively.
In addition, the component of food away from home also slowed to 5.9 per cent as compared with 6.2 per cent recorded in July 2023.
DoSM noted the meat subgroup which consists of chicken, beef, pork, lamb, buffalo and duck registered an increase of 5.8 per cent in August 2023 (July 2023: 5.5 per cent).
"Chicken, the largest component in the subgroup of meat increased to 5.7 per cent as against 4.3 per cent in July 2023. "The average price of standard chicken in Malaysia increased to RM10.21 per kilogram (kg) as compared with RM10.51 per kg in July 2023," it noted.
Rice, bread and other cereals subgroup increased at a slower rate of 4.0 per cent last month. (July 2023: 4.5 per cent).
The imported rice increased 3.6 per cent (July 2023: 2.3 per cent).
"The government has implemented a restriction on the sale of local white rice, limiting purchases to 100 kilograms per customer starting from Sep 7, 2023 to prevent the shortage of local rice in the market.
"Oils & fats subgroup continued to decline for five consecutive months to -1.4 per cent in August 2023 (July 2023: -2.2 per cent) partly due to the maximum retail price of bottled cooking oil which remained unchanged for the period of Aug 8 to Sep 7, 2023.
Inflation for restaurants and hotels slowed to 4.7 per cent last month versus 5 per cent in July 2023.
At the state level, nine states recorded increases below the national inflation level of 2 per cent.
However, seven states recorded increases above the national inflation level namely Sarawak (3.4 per cent), Wilayah Persekutuan Putrajaya (2.7 per cent), Perlis (2.4 per cent), Perak (2.3 per cent), Selangor (2.3 per cent), Pahang (2.2 per cent) and Melaka (2.1 per cent).
The monthly headline inflation in August increased marginally to 0.2 per cent as against 0.1 per cent in July 2023.