As the economy slowly recovers from the Covid-19 pandemic, more people will gain confidence in spending more, thereby increasing the demand for certain things. But that also means an increase in price. So, which items’ prices should you keep an eye on?

Luckily, the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) publishes comprehensive data on prices of goods and services in the economy every month to help anticipate situations such as this.

This article will explore the price changes of items currently in Malaysia and detail which items you will need to be aware about.

Oil and transportation

For the whole of 2020, transportation prices declined by a whopping 9.8% due to the oil price crash when Covid-19 first hit.

For example, RON95 prices declined from RM2.08 per liter in February 2020, to as low as RM1.25 per liter by April 2020.

Currently, as the global economy slowly recovers, oil prices are gradually increasing. RON95 has returned to its pre-pandemic levels of RM2.05 per liter, which represents an increase of almost 64%.

The highest price for RON95 was RM2.30 per liter in 2017, so it’s best to prepare for at least a 10% increase to your fuel-related transportation.

Seafood

If you are a fan of seafood, this will not be good news to you. The growth in price of seafood, including fish, has increased to its highest rate of 2.9% last March 2021, marking the biggest increase since the pandemic.

For context, the growth of seafood was only 0.7% in 2020 due to the pandemic. Seafood prices were still increasing in the pandemic months, averaging around 0.8% growth every month. As most of you were still buying fish from the groceries, there was still demand for them that kept prices up.

This is possibly a big impact to your household expenses moving forward if prices keep increasing. You should avoid buying expensive imported seafood and instead go for more local ones where prices are lower.

Milk, cheese, and eggs

The prices of these items have increased sharply, growing by 1.8%, 2.5%, and 0.9% respectively for January, February, and March 2021.

This steep price increase is concerning. After all, milk is particularly important for babies and you can’t reduce your expenses on them. Eggs are the main staple of every Malaysian diet. Cheese, while not as important as milk or eggs, still makes up a sizable portion of our diet.

While many will still continue to spend big on these items, an alternative would be to look towards cutting down your consumption of these items or seeking alternatives. All the same, you need to prepare your pockets for the upcoming price increase in this area.

Fruits

Fruit price increases have been generally very stable throughout the years, growing at 1.0% every year from 2017 to 2020. However, it has accelerated of late, growing from 1.0% in January 2021 to 1.6% in March 2021.

Fruits are an integral part of your daily intake of food, bringing you good and easily accessible nutrition. You don’t even have to cook them.

What can you do if fruit prices keep increasing? As fruits are big providers of nutrients, it will be hard to cut down on them. Hence, the best you can do is to reduce your consumption of other imported fruits that are more expensive and switch to buying local fruits instead.

Vegetables

Out of all the food items, vegetable prices have been the highest for the months of January 2021 to March 2021. It increased by 3.2% over the quarter, far outpacing other food items.

This was also the case last year, where vegetable prices were also the highest among all the food items in 2020, growing at 4.1%.

This was primarily due to supply disruptions during the pandemic, where suppliers could not transport most of the vegetables to major cities. This led to some shortages, especially in the first few months of the pandemic.

Even so, you should carefully monitor vegetable prices and plan accordingly for them. While vegetable prices reduced slightly, its price growth is still the strongest among the major food items.

Household furnishing and equipment

Price growth for furnishings and household equipment have been gradually increasing in the months of January 2021 to March 2021. Growth has increased from 0.2% in January 2021 to 0.9% in March 2021, supporting the trend that prices might increase in the future.

Last year, prices only increased by 0.3% and was much lower than 2019’s growth of 1.6%. While this increase might be small, you need to consider that furnishings and household equipment are very expensive in nature.

For example, a sofa could cost about RM3,000 and a further increase of prices to 1.6% could cost an additional RM48. Why is this important?

For many first time homebuyers, buying furnishings and household equipment is a big undertaking and involves a very substantial amount of expense. To fully furnish your home, you might need funds that potentially reach RM50,000. So, if you have plans to buy them, don’t wait any longer.

This article first appeared in MyPF. Follow MyPF to simplify and grow your personal finances on Facebook and Instagram.