Malaysia's April CPI rises 4.7% y-o-y, fastest since 2017

[KUALA LUMPUR] Malaysia's consumer price index (CPI) in April rose 4.7 per cent from a year earlier, its fastest growth in more than four years, government data showed on Friday.

April's rise was just below the 4.9 per cent annual expansion forecast by economists in a Reuters poll and was the fastest since March 2017, when the index had grown 5.1 per cent. In March, the index had risen 1.7 per cent.

Malaysia's central bank has said headline inflation was expected to temporarily spike in April and May, due to a lower base from cheaper retail fuel prices last year.

Inflation in April was largely driven by higher fuel prices with the transport sector index rising 27 per cent from a year earlier, the Statistics Department said in a statement.

Higher prices were also seen for housing and utilities, food and non-alcoholic beverages, and household furnishings and maintenance, the department said.

REUTERS