KUALA LUMPUR, Nov. 23 (Xinhua) -- Malaysia's consumer price index (CPI) rose 0.6 percent year-on-year in October, due to higher price for items including housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels, according to latest data released Friday.
Malaysian Statistics Department said in a statement that the increase in the overall index was due to higher prices of housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels which increased by 2.1 percent, food and non-alcoholic beverages that expanded 1.2 percent.
Restaurants and hotels prices rose 1.2 percent, while education and transport accelerated 1.1 percent and 0.8 percent, respectively.
On a monthly basis, CPI increased 0.2 percent as compared to September.
CPI for the period from January to October registered an increase of 1.1 percent as compared to the same period last year.
Meanwhile, core index increased 0.4 percent in October as compared to the same month of the previous year.
Amid higher base effects, MIDF Research foresee headline inflation rate to average at 1.3 percent this year compared to 3.8 percent last year, due to lower inflation rate for the first 10 months.
"We expect inflationary pressure mainly from fuel-related items to calm, consistent with gradual rise in global commodity prices on top of pass-through effect from a strengthening ringgit and subsidy of domestic fuel price," the research house said in a note Friday.
