KUALA LUMPUR, June 21 — Malaysian consumer prices in May were 3.9 per cent higher than a year earlier, government data showed today, due to higher transport and food costs.   

The figure was below the 4.0 per cent forecast in a Reuters poll, and down from April's 4.4 per cent.

Inflation had reached an eight-year high of 5.1 per cent in March.

Transport costs rose 13.1 per cent from a year earlier in May, data from the Statistics Department showed, while prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages rose 4.4 per cent.

Malaysia's central bank said the annual headline inflation rate was 4.3 per cent in the first quarter of 2017, but is expected to moderate in the second half of the year.

Bank Negara Malaysia has set a 2017 inflation target of 3 to 4 per cent. — Reuters