KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 24): Malaysia’s inflation decelerated in September and was a tad slower than expected, as prices of key food items and utilities remained steady while transport costs eased, official data on Thursday showed.

The consumer price index — the country’s main gauge of inflation — rose 1.8% in September from a year earlier, the Department of Statistics Malaysia said in a statement. That is a tad lower than the 1.9% rise predicted in a Bloomberg survey. In August, the index climbed 1.9% year-on-year.

Food-and-beverage items, which account for nearly 30% of the index’s weight, rose at a steady pace of 1.6%, while a group that covers housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels rose 3.1% in September, the same pace as in August. That group accounted for 23% of the index’s weight.

Inflation for transport, which includes vehicle purchases and fuels, eased to 1.1%, versus August’s pace of 1.3%. Diesel prices in particular increased at a slower pace during September, the department noted.

Core inflation, which measures domestic-driven inflation by excluding volatile items and other price-administered items, also came in at 1.8% for September, slightly lower than August’s rate of 1.9%.

The latest official forecast for 2024 calls for a headline inflation rate of 1.5% to 2.5%, which was revised in the Economic Report 2024/2025 from the previous estimate of 2.0% to 3.5%.