KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 25 — Malaysia’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) went down by 0.6 per cent last month compared to June, due to factors such as the discounts to consumers’ electricity bills under the government’s Pemulih economic package, the Department of Statistics of Malaysia (DoSM) said today.
DoSM said the CPI — which measures inflation — had recorded the decrease for July 2021 as compared to June 2021 due to lowered consumer prices or negative performance in the Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas & Other Fuels category at -2.5 per cent and the Alcoholic Beverages & Tobacco category at -0.1 per cent.
“In addition, the decrease was also due to the monthly electricity bill discount given to domestic consumers under the Perlindungan Rakyat dan Pemulihan Ekonomi (Pemulih) Package for a period of three months starting from 1 July 2021 to 30 September 2021,” the DOSM said in its report released today.
In June, the government had announced the Pemulih economic package, which included RM346 million worth of discounts in electricity bills for an expected 7.4 million residential customers in Peninsular Malaysia and an estimated 510,000 residential customers in Sabah.
The temporary discount for residential consumers was for electricity bills in the three months of July, August, September capped at a maximum usage of 900 kilowatt hour per month, with the discount being between five to 40 per cent.
CPI in July 2021 vs July 2020
The CPI in Malaysia rose by 3.4 per cent in June 2021 when compared to June 2020, while the CPI had rose by 2.2 per cent in July 2021 when compared to July 2020.
The year-on-year increase in inflation for July 2021 was mainly due to the consumer price increase in the Transport Category, which recorded a 11.6 per cent increase as compared to July last year, DoSM said.
This was due to the higher retail price for the RON95 petrol, which was sold at an average price of RM1.69 per litre in July 2020 but which had its maximum or ceiling price set at RM2.05 per litre since March 2021, DoSM said.
Out of the 12 main groups, the Transport group recorded the highest year-on-year increase in the CPI and was the only one with a double-digit increase.
For July 2021, the other groups with notable year-on-year increases in the CPI are Furnishings, Household Equipment & Routine Household Maintenance which was the second highest at 1.7 per cent, followed by Food & Non-Alcoholic Beverages at 1.3 per cent, Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas & Other Fuels at 0.7 per cent, while the rest were at 0.6 per cent or below.
One of the 12 categories, Clothing & Footwear, recorded a drop in prices year-on-year, at -0.4 per cent compared to July the previous year. This was due to the subgroup of footwear dropping with a negative rate of -1.0 per cent year-on-year in the CPI, followed by the subgroup of clothing declining with a negative rate of -0.4 per cent.
As for the Food & Non-Alcoholic Beverages category, all of the Food subgroups for food at home recorded a year-on-year increase in July, except for meat where prices fell by 0.5 per cent.
For food at home, the subgroup with the highest increase year-on-year was oil & fats at 4.1 per cent, followed by fish & seafood (3.4 per cent), food products not elsewhere classified (2.1 per cent), milk, cheese & eggs (1.9 per cent), vegetables (0.8 per cent), sugar, jam, honey, chocolate & confectionery (0.4 per cent), rice bread & other cereals (0.3 per cent), and fruits (0.1 per cent).
DoSM said the index of goods where most states in Malaysia recorded a year-on-year increase were kai lan (Chinese broccoli) at 13.5 per cent, french beans at 13.3 per cent, bitter gourd at 13 per cent and blended cooking oil at 12.7 per cent.
The food away from home subgroup’s index went up by 1.3 per cent in July this year as compared to July last year, which was contributed by price increases for cooked beef, cooked fish and satay.
The subgroup of coffee, tea, cocoa & non-alcoholic beverages recorded a 0.3 per cent increase year-on-year.
As for the Alcoholic Beverages & Tobacco category which had a 0.5 per cent increase year-on-year, this was driven by the alcoholic beverages subgroup where prices increased by 1.9 per cent, while the tobacco subgroup recorded no changes in prices as compared to July last year.
Differences in inflation by state
With the national CPI at 2.2 per cent in July 2021 as compared to July 2020, a total of five locations exceeded the national level, with the CPI in Terengganu being 2.8 per cent, Pahang (2.5 per cent), Selangor and Putrajaya (2.4 per cent), Kelantan (2.4 per cent), and Sarawak (2.3 per cent).
Perak’s CPI matched the national level, while all other states recorded levels lower than the national CPI figure, namely 2.1 per cent (Johor, Negri Sembilan, Kedah & Perlis), 2.0 per cent (Kuala Lumpur, Melaka), 1.8 per cent (Penang), and 1.4 per cent (Sabah & Labuan).
The national index for Food & Non-Alcoholic Beverages increased by 1.3 per cent in July 2021 as compared to July 2020, with this index in Selangor & Putrajaya collectively increasing by 2.0 per cent, while other states and region recorded an increase ranging from 1.3 per cent to 0.5 per cent.
