KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s inflation increased by 1.2% to 134.7 in July 2025 from 133.1 in the same month last year, according to the Department of Statistics Malaysia.
The increase was driven by the inflation rate for the insurance and financial services group, which rose to 5.5% compared to 1.5% in the previous month.
“The increase in Malaysia’s inflation was also driven by the restaurants and accommodation services group (3.1%; June 2025: 2.8%) and transport (0.4%; June 2025: 0.3%),“ it said.
The significant rise in the inflation rate for the insurance and financial services group was driven by the increase in the premium charges for hospital benefit insurance (14.7%; June 2025: 0.4%) and premium including service charges for motorcycles and scooters insurance (1.8%; June 2025: 1.3%).
The food and beverages group, which contributes 29.8% to the total Consumer Price Index weight, recorded a growth of 1.9% in July 2025 compared to 2.1% in June 2025.
“This was contributed by the inflation of the food away from home subgroup (4.3%; June 2025: 4.7%) and food at home, which declined to -0.3% (June 2025: -0.4%),“ it said.
Chief statistician Datuk Sri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin highlighted that 58.3% of items in the CPI basket (334 out of 573) recorded price increases.
“Nonetheless, out of this total, 322 items registered an increase of less than or equal to 10%, while only 12 items recorded increases of more than 10% in July 2025,“ he said.
“The remainder 189 items showed a decline, and 50 items remained unchanged,“ he said.
Mohd Uzir said that both inflation for unleaded petrol RON97 and diesel remained in negative territory, at -7.8% (June 2025: -10.4%) and -7.1% (June 2025: -3.4%), respectively.
“The average price of RON97 unleaded petrol in July 2025 stood at RM3.20 per litre, compared to RM3.47 per litre in July 2024,“ he said.
“Meanwhile, the average price for diesel in Peninsular Malaysia was at RM2.89 per litre (July 2024: RM3.35 per litre), and the average price of diesel for Sabah, Sarawak and the Federal Territory of Labuan remained at RM2.15 per litre,“ he said.
On inflation at the state level, Mohd Uzir said 12 states recorded increases below the national inflation rate of 1.2%, with Kelantan recording the lowest inflation (0.0%) in July 2025.
“However, four states recorded increases above the national inflation level, namely Johor (1.8%), Selangor (1.5%), Negeri Sembilan (1.4%) and Melaka (1.3%),“ he added. – Bernama
