KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 20): Malaysia’s inflation rate dipped to 1.8% in November this year, compared to 1.9% in October, marking the first decline since August 2021, according to the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) on Friday. 

This brings the average inflation for the 11-month period to 1.84%, which corresponds to the official inflation forecast of between 1.5% and 2.5% for 2024, versus 2.5% in 2023. 

DOSM on Friday said the slight deceleration in the consumer price index (CPI) — Malaysia’s main gauge of inflation — in November was due to a slowdown in price increases for key sectors such as health at 1.2%, compared with 1.4% in October, and transport at 0.4%, compared with 0.7% in the previous month. 

Besides that, inflation for information and communication continued to decrease to -3.9%, from -1.7%, while clothing and footwear remained in negative territory at -0.3%, compared with -0.2% in October.  

Core inflation, which excludes volatile items like food and energy, remained steady at 1.8%.

Food and beverages, which has the largest weight in the index, continued to be the main inflation driver, recording a 2.6% increase year-on-year, compared with 2.3% in October. This was fuelled by a rise in meat prices, particularly chicken, which jumped 4.8%, compared to 3.6% in the previous month. 

“Based on data collected by DOSM, the average price of standard chicken in Malaysia for November 2024 was RM10.41 per kilogramme, as compared to RM9.96 per kilogramme in November 2023 (October 2024: RM10.63),” DOSM said. 

Increases in prices of personal care, social protection and miscellaneous goods and services (3.4%), as well as restaurant and accommodation services (2.8%), also contributed to the November print. 

With regard to inflation at the state level, DOSM said most of the states recorded increases below the national inflation level of 1.8%. However, inflation for five states were above the national inflation level, namely Pulau Pinang (2.9%), Pahang (2.4%), Selangor (2.1%), Johor (1.9%) and Sarawak (1.9%).  

In comparison to inflation in other selected countries, DOSM noted that inflation in Malaysia (1.8%) was lower than inflation in Vietnam (2.8%) and Philippines (2.5%). However, the rate was higher than Indonesia (1.6%), Republic of Korea (1.5%), Thailand (1.0%) and China (0.2%). 

In its final monetary policy statement of the year last month, Bank Negara Malaysia said inflation remained modest so far this year, and is expected to remain manageable going into 2025, amid the easing global cost conditions and the absence of excessive domestic demand pressures.