• Inflation increased slightly higher by 0.3% yoy
• Lower transportation index; 0.3% yoy
• Core inflation rose by 0.3%
• Mix global inflation trend
• A negligible sales and service tax impact on inflation

Malaysia’s inflation increased slightly higher by 0.3% yoy in September after posting the slowest rate in 42 months (0.2%) in the preceding month. The CPI was still below 1.0% since June 2018, the starting month of zerorisation of GST. The sales and services tax (SST) took effect 1st September, but there has been no significant change on prices as compared to the corresponding period of last year. This was because the SST covered 38% of the CPI basket of goods compared with 60% from the GST. The slow growth was in tandem with the small increase in food and non-alcoholic beverages (FNAB) index (Sep: 0.5%; Aug: 0.4%) as well as a marginal rise in transportation index (Sep: 0.3%; Aug: 2.1%).

On a monthly basis, CPI grew by 0.4% in September and for the period Jan-Sep 2018, CPI registered an increase of 1.2% as compared to the corresponding period of last year.

Source: BIMB Securities Research - 29 Oct 2018