Malaysia's February CPI +1.5% on Yr Vs Reuters Poll +1.5%.
Malaysia's consumer-price growth slowed slightly in the second month of 2025, extending a long-running streak of stable inflation.
The consumer price index rose 1.5% from a year earlier in February, mainly due to a deceleration in housing and utilities price growth, the Department of Statistics said Friday.
That compares with the median forecast for a 1.6% rise compiled in a survey of six economists by The Wall Street Journal.
Economists had largely anticipated that inflation would stay broadly steady.
Malaysia's inflation will likely remain manageable through 2025, supported by easing global commodity prices and moderate domestic demand pressures, RHB economist Chin Yee Sian said in a recent note. The country's fuel subsidy reform, set for mid-2025, will probably have limited inflationary impact if implemented gradually, she said. RHB projects inflation to rise 2.4% this year, compared with a 1.8% increase in 2024.
February's data showed that prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages, which have a nearly 30% weighting on the consumer price index, rose 2.5% on the year.
Core inflation, which strips out volatile prices of fresh food as well as prices of government-administered goods, increased 1.9% in February from a year earlier.
On a monthly basis, consumer prices rose 0.4% last month, compared with January's 0.1% decrease.
By Ying Xian Wong
