KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's inflation rate continued to increase at a slower rate, falling to 1.5 per cent in November 2023 with the index points recorded at 130.9 against 129.0 in the same month of the previous year, the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) said.

Malaysia's consumer price index (CPI) edged lower to 1.8 per cent in October, from 1.9 per cent in September.

Chief statistician Datuk Seri Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the increase was driven by the lower increases in restaurants and hotels at 4.3 per cent (October 2023: 4.6 per cent); food and non-alcoholic beverages, 2.6 per cent (October 2023: 3.6 per cent) and health, 2.3 per cent (October 2023: 2.4 per cent).

"In addition, some of the other main groups that showed an increase were housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels, 1.7 per cent (October 2023: 1.6 per cent) and transport, 0.1 per cent (October 2023: 0.0 per cent," he said in a statement today on the CPI for November.

Mohd Uzir noted that the monthly headline inflation remained unchanged in November compared to October at 0.1 per cent.

He said a few main groups continued to record increases monthly, namely miscellaneous goods and services (0.4 per cent); housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels (0.2 per cent) and health (0.2 per cent).

However, it was offset by a decline in the food and non-alcoholic beverages group (-0.3 per cent).

"The core inflation (2.0 per cent) still surpassed the overall national inflation rate (1.5 per cent). This was due to restaurants and hotels and food and non-alcoholic beverages which recorded moderate increases of 4.3 per cent and 3.7 per cent respectively in November 2023," DOSM said.

As for inflation at the state level, Mohd Uzir said most of the states recorded increases below the national inflation level at 1.5 per cent.

However, five states recorded increases above the national inflation level namely Putrajaya (2.3 per cent), Sarawak (2.0 per cent), Perak (1.9 per cent), Pulau Pinang (1.8 per cent) and Selangor (1.7 per cent).

In comparison to inflation in other countries, inflation in Malaysia (1.5 per cent) was lower than inflation in Philippines (4.1 per cent), Vietnam (3.5 per cent), Republic of Korea (3.3 per cent) and Indonesia (2.9 per cent).

However, the rate is higher than Thailand (-0.4 per cent) and China (-0.5 per cent).

-- BERNAMA