KUALA LUMPUR, May 21 — Malaysia’s annual inflation rate is expected to have risen to 1.6 per cent in April, accelerating slightly from the previous month, a Reuters poll showed today.

Inflation was likely kept in check by steady fuel prices and a higher base in the year-earlier period, offsetting higher food costs, economists in the survey said.

In the first quarter, headline inflation slowed, with the annual rate declining to 1.3 per cent in March, the slowest in nearly two years.

Malaysia’s central bank left its key interest rate unchanged in its last review, citing a lower inflation rate and steady economic growth, after former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s long-ruling coalition was ousted in a shock election upset on May 9. — Reuters