Chief statistician Uzir Mahidin said the increase was mainly driven by the higher cost of personal care items, social protection, and miscellaneous goods and services at 6.6%, compared to 5.7% for December 2025.

This is followed by education at 3.2% (up from 2.8% in December), housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels at 1.2% (up from 0.9%) and recreation, sport and culture at 0.9% (up from 0.8%), he said in a statement.

Uzir said alcoholic beverages and tobacco (2.5%) as well as food and beverages (1.5%) increased at the same rate as recorded in December.

He said 62% of the items (355 out of 573) recorded price increases.

“Nonetheless, out of this total, 346 items (97.5%) registered an increase of less than or equal to 10%, while only nine items recorded increases of more than 10% in January.

“The remaining 173 items showed a decline, and 45 items remained unchanged,” he said.

Uzir said the average price of unleaded RON97 petrol in January was RM3.11 per litre, a drop from the RM3.24 per litre in December.

The average price of diesel in Peninsular Malaysia was RM2.89 per litre, compared to RM3.03 per litre in December (January 2025: RM3.06 per litre) and the average price of diesel for Sabah, Sarawak and Labuan remained at RM2.15 per litre.

The average market price of unleaded RON95 petrol increased to RM2.54 per litre (December 2025: RM2.62 per litre) compared to the subsidised price of RM1.99 per litre.

He said three states recorded increases above the national inflation level – Johor (2.1%), Negeri Sembilan (2.0%) and Pahang (1.9%).

“The remaining 13 states increased below or equal to the national inflation rate, with Kelantan recording the lowest inflation (0.3%) in January,” he said.

Uzir said compared to inflation in other selected countries, inflation in Malaysia was lower than that in Indonesia (3.6%), Vietnam (2.5%) and South Korea (2.0%).

However, the rate was higher than Thailand’s (-0.7%).