Malaysia: Inflation stabilizes in January
Latest reading: Consumer prices were up 1.6% on a year-on-year basis in January, unchanged from the prior month. January’s reading was the joint-strongest in a year.
Relative to the prior month’s figures, price pressures in January were higher for housing and utilities (+1.2% in annual terms vs +0.9% in December). In contrast, there were reduced price pressures for transportation (-0.7% vs +0.1% in December). Finally, the variation in food and non-alcoholic beverages prices was the same as in the prior month (+1.5% in both January and December).
In month-on-month terms, consumer prices increased 0.15% in January, following a 0.30% rise in the previous month.