KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's inflation rose 1.8 per cent in April for the third consecutive month.
The Department of Statistics Malaysia (DoSM) said the increase in inflation last month was driven by hikes in restaurant and accommodation services (3.5 per cent), personal care, social protection and miscellaneous goods and services (3.1 per cent) and housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels, (3.0 per cent) prices.
DoSM said the increase of 3.5 per cent in restaurant and accommodation services was contributed by the increase in beverage preparation services as much as 3.9 per cent.
It said the food and beverages group recorded an increase of 2.0 per cent in April, with the main subgroup of food at home increased marginally to 0.4 per cent.
Meanwhile, the main subgroup of food away from home increased 4.0 per cent as compared to 3.5 per cent in March 2024.
Overall, DoSM said the monthly inflation recorded an increase of 0.2 per cent as compared to 0.1 per cent recorded in March 2024.
"This is mainly driven by personal care, social protection and miscellaneous goods and services (0.9 per cent), recreation, sport and culture (0.8 per cent), and restaurant and accommodation services (0.3 per cent)," it added.
For inflation at the state level, DoSM said most of the states recorded increases below the national inflation level of 1.8 per cent.
However, four states recorded increases above the national inflation level namely Pulau Pinang (3.2 per cent), Sarawak (2.8 per cent), Pahang (2.4 per cent) and Selangor (2.2 per cent).
In comparison to inflation in other selected countries, inflation in Malaysia (1.8 per cent) was lower than inflation in Vietnam (4.4 per cent), Philippines (3.8 per cent), United States of America (3.4 per cent), Indonesia (3.0 per cent) and South Korea (2.9 per cent).
However, the rate is higher than Thailand (0.2 per cent) and China (0.3 per cent).