PETALING JAYA: The Consumer Price Index (CPI) increased 1.6% in January 2020 to 122.4 as against 120.5 in the same month of the preceding year, driven by the index of transport (3.9%), miscellaneous goods & services (2.5%), housing, water, electricity, gas & other fuels (1.7%), education (1.7%) and communication (1.5%).
Chief statistician Malaysia Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said out of 552 items covered in CPI, 353 items showed an increase in January 2020 as against January 2019. On the contrary, 146 items declined while 53 items were unchanged.
Based on the performance of 552 items by category of goods and services, non-durable goods (296 items) is a category that experienced the most price increases with 206 items, 72 items decreased and 18 items were unchanged as compared to services, durable goods and semi durable goods.
The higher average price of RON 95 in January 2020 which recorded RM2.08 per litre as compared to RM1.98 in January 2019 had contributed to the increase of the transport and overall index. In addition, the average price of RON 97 increased to RM2.58 per litre as compared to RM2.28 while diesel increased to RM2.18 per litre from RM2.12 in corresponding month of the preceding year.
On a monthly basis, CPI rose 0.1% as compared to December 2019, mainly supported by the index of education (0.4%), miscellaneous goods & services (0.4%), health (0.2%) and recreation services & culture (0.2%).
Three states namely Selangor & Wilayah Persekutuan Putrajaya (2.1%), Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur (1.8%) and Johor (1.8%) surpassed the national CPI rate of 1.6% in January 2020 as compared to the same month in the preceding year.
All states except Kelantan registered an increase in the index of food & non-alcoholic beverages. The highest increase was recorded by Selangor & Wilayah Persekutuan Putrajaya (1.4%) followed by Johor (1.3%), Penang (1.1%), Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur (1.0%) and Perak (1.0%) and it surpassed the national index of 0.9% for food & non-alcoholic beverages in January 2020.
