KUALA LUMPUR (March 25): Malaysia’s inflation in February 2024 edged up 1.8% with the index points recorded at 132.1, as against 129.8 in the same month of the previous year.

In a statement on Monday, the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) said the inflation increase in February 2024 was driven by the housing, water, electricity, gas & other fuels group (2.7%); the recreation, sport & culture group (1.6%), and the transport group (1.2%).

However, other main groups had recorded a slower increase in inflation, such as restaurant & accommodation services (2.9%), health (2.2%), food & beverages (1.9%), and education (1.5%).

Chief Statistician Malaysia Datuk Sri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the increase of 2.7% in inflation for housing, water, electricity, gas & other fuels (January 2024: 2.0%) was contributed by the main subgroup of water supply & miscellaneous services relating to the dwelling, at 29.7% (January 2024: 9.3%).

He said this was due to the implementation of the adjustment in water tariffs according to the tariff setting mechanism (TSM) for domestic category users in Peninsular Malaysia and the Labuan Federal Territory, starting Feb 1, 2024.

Meanwhile, Mohd Uzir said the increase of inflation in the transport group was driven by the main subgroups of operation of personal transport equipment, which increased by 1.3% (January 2024: 1.2%); and passenger transport services at an 1.7% increase (January 2024: -4.5%).

Meanwhile, DOSM said the food & beverages group, which contributes 29.8% of the total consumer price index (CPI) weight, recorded a slower increase of 1.9% in February 2024 (January 2024: 2.0%).

It said the main subgroup of food-at-home increased to 0.5% in February 2024 (January 2024: 1.1%).

The main subgroup of food-away-from-home increased to 3.5%, as compared to 3.1% registered in January 2024.

The increase in the expenditure class of cereals & cereal products was by 2.5% in February 2024 (January 2024: 2.7%), which was contributed by imported fragrant rice and Basmati rice, which increased by 6.3% (January 2024: 6.6%) and 1.0% (January 2024: 2.1%) respectively.

Meanwhile, expenditure for wheat flour declined to -4.3% (January 2024: -3.8%).

Mohd Uzir said with regard to inflation at the state level, most states recorded increases below the national inflation level of 1.8%.

However, he said five states recorded increases above the national inflation level, namely Pulau Pinang (2.7%), Pahang (2.4%), Selangor (2.1%), Perlis (2.0%) and Sarawak (1.9%).

All states registered an increase in the inflation of food & beverages. The highest increase was recorded by the Federal Territory of Putrajaya (3.2%), followed by Selangor (3.0%), Pulau Pinang (2.5%), the Federal Territory of Labuan (2.3%), Sarawak (2.2%), Perlis (2.2%) and Pahang (2.1%).

Meanwhile, other states showed an increase below the national inflation of food & beverages of 1.9% in February 2024.