Malaysia inflation rises to 2.8% in May, led by decade-high food inflation

A DECADE-HIGH surge in food prices has fuelled Malaysia’s overall inflation in May, with the consumer price index (CPI) up 2.8 per cent from a year ago, higher than the 2.3 per cent figure in April.

For the first 5 months of 2022, inflation has reached 2.4 per cent, compared to 2.1 per cent for the same period in 2021. On a monthly basis, the CPI rose 0.6 per cent from April to May.

Mohd Uzir Mahidin, chief statistician of Department of Statistics Malaysia, said that food inflation continued to rise to a new high of 5.2 per cent – the highest since November 2011 – with 93 per cent of items in this group recording price increases.