KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 7 — Putrajaya’s fuel and food subsidies may have contributed to Malaysians tipping the scales as the most obese people in the region, a business publication has suggested.

Nikkei Asian Review pointed out that the prices of cooking oil, flour and gasoline in Malaysia are among the lowest in Southeast Asia, and asserted that Malaysians love eating fried, greasy food and prefer driving instead of walking, even for short distances.

“It appears below-market prices for food and fuel are plumping up people as well as wallets,” said Nikkei Asian Review.

Malaysia was listed as the fattest country in Southeast Asia in a 2013 study by UK medical journal The Lancet, which found that 44 per cent of Malaysian men and 49 per cent of Malaysian women are obese.

Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam was also quoted saying the country was suffering from an “obesity epidemic”, in a report by international news service AFP last Thursday.

Nikkei Asian Review cited a survey by UK market researcher Euromonitor International that showed a “far higher” car ownership in Malaysia than in neighbouring Thailand and Indonesia.

The business newspaper also cited a June 2013 survey by CIMB that showed cooking oil selling for RM2.50 per kg in Malaysia, much lower than other countries in the region and less than 25 per cent of the price in the Philippines.

Prices for essential food items such as certain grades of rice, flour and cooking oil are controlled by the government.

If the correlation claimed by Nikkei Asian Review is correct, then Malaysians will be headed for trimmer waistlines now that Putrajaya has fully withdrawn direct fuel subsidies for consumers. In Budget 2014, price support for sugar was also eliminated.

Putrajaya eliminated fuel subsidies completely on December 1, with pump prices for RON95 petrol and diesel reflecting global crude oil prices based on the managed float system.

Global oil price trends saw the retail price of RON95 petrol dropping four sen to RM2.26 per litre, while the retail price of RON97 petrol dipped nine sen to RM2.46 per litre last Monday.