Consumer goods prices rise again, as Malaysians tighten belts

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) used to gauge inflation for November 2015 rose 2.6 percent to 114.8 compared with 111.9 in the same month last year, the Statistics Department said.

The department said the higher CPI was led by increases in the indices for alcoholic beverages and tobacco group (+20.7 per cent); miscellaneous goods and services (+5.9 percent); restaurants & hotels (+4.6 percent); health (4.4 percent); food & non-alcoholic beverages (+4.1 percent); and furnishings, household equipment & routine household maintenance (+3.8 percent).

"These six groups of goods and services (weight: 47.4) contributed 97.8 percent to the increase in the CPI for the month of November 2015.

"In addition, the overall index was also influenced by the increase in communication (+3.4 percent) and recreation services & culture by 2.6 percent," it said in a statement.

Overall, it said, the index for food & non-alcoholic beverages (weight 30.3) rose 4.1 percent on a year-on-year basis in November 2015, while the index for non-food (weight 69.7) increased 1.9 percent.

It said on a monthly basis, the CPI for November 2015 increased by 0.6 percent.

"The CPI for the first 11 months in 2015 registered an increase of 2.0 percent over the same period last year.

"The increase was led by improvements among the main groups with high eights: food & non-alcoholic beverages (+3.6 percent); and housing, water electricity, gas & other fuels (+2.4 percent)," it said.

The department said increases were also recorded for alcoholic beverages & tobacco (+12.6 percent); health (+4.5 percent); restaurants & hotels (+4.2 percent); and miscellaneous goods & services (+4.1 percent).

- Bernama