KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia recorded an inflation rate of 4.5% in September, down from 4.7% in August, says caretaker economic affairs minister Mustapa Mohamed.
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He said that on a month-on-month comparison, inflation in September continued to moderate by 0.1% compared with 0.2% in August, while for the period from January to September, the inflation rate was 3.3%.
“Malaysia recorded a lower inflation rate for September compared with countries like the US (8.2%), the Philippines (6.9%), Thailand (6.4%), Indonesia (6.0%), and South Korea (5.6%),” he said in a statement today.
Mustapa said the lower inflation rate in September was mainly contributed by the food group which moderated to 6.8% compared with 7.2% in August.
The meat subgroup, which included chicken, beef, pork, lamb, buffalo and duck, also recorded a slower increase to 6.6% in September compared with 9.9% the month before.
“This is mainly due to chicken, which is the largest component in this subgroup representing 46.1%, showing a significant moderation in price increases, 3.7%, compared with 10.7% in August,” he said.
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Although the milk, cheese and egg group recorded the highest increase of 8.8% in September, it was still slower than the 9.4% increase in August, he said.
Mustapa also said the vegetable subgroup had started to moderate in September with 6.3% compared with 8.9% in August.
Among the vegetables and some types of fish that recorded a month-on-month price drop were tomatoes (9.9%), cucumbers (7.8%), French beans (4.2%), drift fish (3.4%) and yellowtail scad (1.2%).
“The maximum price of pure cooking oil packaged in bottles of various sizes recorded a decrease from Sept 8 to Oct 7 with the content of 5kg recording the largest reduction, which is a decrease to RM33.50 from RM34.70,” he said.–FMT