Malaysia: Inflationary pressure disappear in January
Consumer prices dropped 0.50% month-on-month in January, contrasting the 0.08% rise in December. The result was driven by a steep fall in transportation costs offsetting more expensive food and non-alcoholic beverages; and housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels.
In year-on-year terms, consumer prices fell 0.7% in January, swinging from December’s 0.2% reading and annual average inflation eased from 1.0% in December to 0.7%. Core inflation—which excludes certain types of fresh food and administered prices of goods and services—edged down from 0.4% in December to 0.2%.