PETALING JAYA: Malaysia’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 1.5% in June 2019 to 121.4 from 119.6 a year ago.
“Out of 552 items covered in CPI, 381 items showed positive growth in June 2019 as against June 2018. On the contrary, 131 items posted negative growth while 40 items remained unchanged,” said Chief Statistician Malaysia Datuk Seri Dr. Mohd Uzir Mahidin.
The zero-rating of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) on June 1, 2018 led to the increase in some of the index of the main groups namely furnishings, household equipment and routine household maintenance (3.1%); recreation services and culture (2.7%); food and non-alcoholic beverages (2.3%); and housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels (2.3%).
On a monthly basis, CPI remained unchanged as compared with May 2019.
Meanwhile, CPI in the second quarter of 2019 increased 0.7% to 121.3 from 120.5 a year ago, mainly due to contribution from the index of housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels (2%); food and non-alcoholic beverages (1.5%); alcoholic beverages and tobacco (1.5%) and education (1.3%).
On a quarterly basis, the CPI increased 0.4% as compared with the first quarter of 2019.
In June 2019, three states namely Kuala Lumpur (2.2%), Pulau Pinang (2.2%) as well as Selangor and Putrajaya (1.7%) surpassed the national CPI rate of 1.5% while Perak and Johor showed the same rate of increase as the national CPI.
All states registered increase in the index of food and non-alcoholic beverages with the highest increases recorded by Kuala Lumpur (4%), Pulau Pinang (2.8%), Perak (2.7%) as well as Selangor and Putrajaya (2.6%), surpassing the national index of food and non-alcoholic beverages in June 2019.
