KUALA LUMPUR, April 22 — The Consumer Price Index (CPI), which is used to gauge inflation, increased by 0.9 per cent to 110.9 in March 2015 compared with 109.9 in the same month last year.
In a statement today, the Statistics Department attributed the increase to the rise in the indices for alcoholic beverages and tobacco (+10.6 per cent); health (+3.6 per cent); restaurants and hotels (+2.8 per cent); and, food and non-alcoholic beverages (+2.3 per cent).
The department said the value of the CPI was also influenced by the decrease in transport (-4.9 per cent); communication (-0.9 per cent); and, clothing and footwear (-0.2 per cent).
It said overall, the index for food and non-alcoholic veverages and the index for non-food increased by 2.3 per cent and 0.3 per cent respectively in March 2015 compared to the same period last year.
However, a modest increase in the food and non-alcoholic beverages was not able to increase the overall index due to higher contribution by non-food group (+69.7 per cent), it said.
The department said when compared with the previous month, the CPI for March 2015 increased by 0.9 per cent.
The increases were for main groups, namely, transport (+0.8 per cent); clothing (+0.4 per cent); and health (+0.4 per cent). — Bernama
