Malaysian central bank sees inflation exceeding 8-year high

Kuala Lumpur

HIGHER fuel costs probably pushed up Malaysia's inflation rate this month to above the 4.5 per cent rate posted in February, though there's no evidence that price pressures are spreading more broadly in the economy, an official from the central bank said.

Last month's inflation rate - which was the highest in more than eight years and exceeded the median estimate of 3.9 percent in a Bloomberg survey - wasn't a surprise to the central bank, Fraziali Ismail, director of the economics department at Bank Negara Malaysia, said in an interview in Kuala Lumpur. If oil prices stay where they are, it's a "question of arithmetic" that inflation would accelerate, he said.