KUALA LUMPUR, April 17 (Reuters) - Malaysia's consumer price index
rose 1.6 percent in March from a year earlier, meeting expectations,
data from the Statistics Department showed on Wednesday.
Economists polled by Reuters had forecast the annual inflation rate to
creep up to 1.6 percent in March as higher wages and other giveaways ahead of an
election helped support private consumption.
For a graphic on Malaysia's CPI and food inflation, see: http://link.reuters.com/tyc76s
MALAYSIA CONSUMER PRICE INDEX (base 2005)
PERCENTAGE CHANGE
Mar Feb Jan Dec Nov Oct Sept Aug July June May Apr
yr/yr 1.6 1.5 1.3 1.2 1.3 1.3 1.3 1.4 1.4 1.6 1.7 1.9
mth/mth 0.1 0.2 0.4 0.0 0.1 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.0 0.1 0.2 0.0
March 2013
(percentage change year-on-year)
Food, non-alcoholic beverages 3.3
Alcoholic beverages, tobacco 2.0
Clothing, footwear -0.5
Housing, water, electricity, fuels 1.3
Furnishings, household equipment 1.7
Health 1.9
Transport 1.0
Communication -0.7
Recreation services, culture 0.0
Education 2.2
Restaurants, hotels 2.3
Miscellaneous goods/services 1.2
Weightings/contribution to the March 2013 CPI Components
Components Weightings Contribution (pct)
Food, non-alcoholic beverages 30.3 55.9
Alcoholic beverages 2.2 2.4
Clothing, footwear 3.4 4.8
Housing, water, electricity, fuels 22.6 15.6
Furnishings, household equipment 4.1 5.5
Health 1.3 1.4
Transport 14.9 6.8
Communication 5.7 -2.1
Recreation services, culture 4.6 -0.1
Education 1.4 1.7
Restaurants, hotels 3.2 4.1
Miscellaneous goods/services 6.3 4.0
* For more stories on Malaysia's economy, click
(Reporting by Anuradha Raghu; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani and Siva
Sithraputhran)
