KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 28 — Malaysia’s consumer price index rose 2.7 per cent annually in January, its slowest pace in more than a year, government data showed today.

January’s annual inflation rate was below the 2.9 per cent forecast in a Reuters poll, and was at its slowest since

December 2016 when it was at 1.7 per cent.

The rate in December 2017 was 3.5 per cent.

Inflation in January was driven by higher transport and food prices, data from the Statistics Department showed.

The transport index rose 5.7 per cent from a year earlier, the data showed.

Headline inflation has moderated after staying above 3 per cent each month in 2017, peaking at 5.1 per cent in March.

Full-year 2017 inflation came in at 3.7 per cent. Malaysia’s central bank expects inflation to ease further in 2018. — Reuters