In releasing the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for October, the department said food and beverages rose 1.5% during the month, compared with 2.1% in September, while housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels increased by 1.1% against 1.5% previously, Bernama reported.

However, some categories saw faster price increases, led by personal care, social protection, and miscellaneous goods and services, which surged 6% from 4.8%.

Restaurants and accommodation services climbed 3.4%, health rose 1.5%, recreation, sports and culture increased 1.2%, and furnishings and household maintenance edged up 0.3%.

Insurance and financial services (5.6%), education (2.4%) and alcoholic beverages and tobacco (0.3%) were unchanged. Among those that declined were information and communication (-2.4%), clothing and footwear (-0.3%) and transport (-0.1%).

Core inflation ticked up to 2.2% in October from 2.1% in September, mainly because of sustained increases in services and personal care-related costs.

The department said 344 out of 573 tracked items recorded price increases in October, with 97% of them rising by 10% or less. Only nine items climbed by more than 10%, while 181 items recorded price drops, and 48 remained unchanged.

It said administered prices helped limit overall inflation, with items such as domestic cooking gas, cigarettes, RON95 petrol and government hospital charges remaining unchanged from a year ago.

However, items like gold jewellery (44.3%), grated coconut (27.0%), fresh coconut milk (29.2%), lemon (22.4%) and plumbing services (14.7%) saw notable increases.

Compared with selected Asia-Pacific economies, Malaysia’s 1.3% inflation rate was lower than the Philippines (1.7%), Indonesia (2.9%) and South Korea (2.4%), but higher than China’s 0.2%.