KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 18): Malaysia's inflation was a tad faster than expected in August as price growth in transport, utilities and food picked up, official data released on Friday showed.
The consumer price index, the country’s main gauge of inflation, rose 1.9% when compared to August 2025, the Department of Statistics Malaysia said in a statement. The print was a tad higher than the median 1.8% in a Bloomberg survey and July’s 1.8% year-on-year gain.
On a month-on-month basis, the index was up 0.3% in August.
Inflation in Malaysia has remained relatively more benign than in many other Asian countries amid elevated oil prices and prolonged geopolitical conflict in the Middle East.
Targeted subsidies and price controls on essential goods have partially shielded the average Malaysians against spikes in prices of global commodities.
Core inflation — a measure of underlying inflation by stripping out volatile prices of items such as fresh food, as well as administered prices of goods — eased to 1.7% year-on-year in August from 1.8% a month earlier.
The food and beverage index, which accounts for about 30% of the index’s weightage, increased 1.9% in August driven by food-at-home products while the food-away-from-home subgroup was steady.
During the month, the category that covers housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels saw a higher inflation rate of 2.1% driven by the revision of the automatic fuel adjustment rate imposed on domestic users in Peninsular Malaysia for consumption of more than 600 kilowatt-hours.
Inflation for the transport group was 2.0% in August, accelerating from 1.4% in July due to higher gains in public transport services and a surge in operation of personal transport equipment.