Malaysia’s Dec inflation rate seen picking up to 0.4% y-o-y

KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 22): Malaysia’s consumer price index (CPI) was expected to rise 0.4% in December from a year earlier, a Reuters poll showed, slightly faster than the previous month.

According to an estimate of 10 economists, the inflation rate ranged between 0.1% and 1.1%.

Inflation has been mild since the government removed an unpopular consumption tax in June and reinstated a narrower sales and services tax (SST) three months later.

The annual inflation rate in November came in at 0.2%, matching the rate in August when it touched a three-and-a-half-year low.

Inflation had been largely benign in the third quarter of 2018, but was expected to edge upwards this year, Malaysia’s central bank had said at its last monetary policy meeting in November.

The next central bank meeting will be held on Thursday.

Source: TheEdgeMarkets