KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 19 Malaysia’s Consumer Price Index (CPI), which measures headline inflation rose 0.2 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) to 120.0 in August, registering the lowest rate of increase in 42 months.

Department of Statistics (DoS) Chief Statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the slowdown in movement was due to the impact of cost of fuels which caused the index for transport to increase 2.1 per cent in the month under review compared with July’s 6.7 per cent.

He said an increase in the price of housing, water, electricity,gas and other fuels (+2.0 per cent), education (+1.1 per cent), restaurant and hotels (+0.7 per cent), and food and non-alcoholic beverages (+0.4 per cent) also contributed to the increase of August’s CPI.

"On a monthly basis, the CPI increased 0.2 per cent compared with July 2018, which was recorded at 119.8,” Mohd Uzir added, in a statement today.

Meanwhile, the CPI for January-August 2018 registered a 1.3 per cent increase compared with same period last year.

In terms of the overall CPI, DoS reported that three states surpassed the national CPI rate of 0.2 per cent y-o-y.

The states were Negeri Sembilan (+0.6 per cent), Federal Territory Kuala Lumpur (+0.5 per cent) as well as Selangor and Federal Territory Putrajaya (+0.3 per cent).

Panang and Johor showed the same rate as the national CPI.

Meanwhile, the higher increase in the index for food and non-alcoholic beverages was reflected in most states in the country.

Two states recorded a higher increase on their food and non-alcoholic beverages index above the national index level (+0.4 per cent) in August 2018 as compared with the corresponding month in 2017.

The index for food and non-alcoholic beverages rose 2.9 per cent in the Federal Territory Kuala Lumpur and 0.7 per cent in Sarawak. — Bernama