Malaysia's inflation increased 1.4 per cent in April 2025

Malaysia’s inflation increased at 1.4 per cent in April 2025 with the index points stood at 134.3 as against 132.4 in the same month of the previous year. The increase of inflation in April 2025 was driven by an increase in the group of Personal Care, Social Protection & Miscellaneous Goods & Services, 4.1 per cent (March 2025: 3.6%), followed by Education, 2.3 per cent (March 2025: 2.2%) and Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas & Other Fuels, 2.0 per cent (March 2025: 1.9%). However, Food & Beverages, 2.3 per cent (March 2025: 2.5%); Recreation, Sport & Culture, 1.3 per cent (March 2025: 1.7%); Health, 0.9 per cent (March 2025: 1.0%) and Furnishings, Household Equipment & Routine Household Maintenance, 0.1 per cent (March 2025: 0.2%) recorded a slower increase as compared to the previous month.

Inflation for Restaurant & Accommodation Services (2.9%), Insurance & Financial Services (1.5%), Alcoholic Beverages & Tobacco (0.8%) and Transport (0.7%) increased at the same rate as recorded in the previous month. In addition, Information & Communication and Clothing & Footwear, remained at negative territory registering negative 4.5 per cent and negative 0.1 per cent respectively.

Eleven states recorded increases below the national inflation rate of 1.4 per cent with both Kelantan and Wilayah Persekutuan Putrajaya recording the lowest increase at 0.5 per cent in April 2025. However, four states recorded increases above the national inflation level namely Johor (2.2%), Negeri Sembilan (1.7%), Selangor (1.7%) and Melaka (1.6%). All states registered an increase in the inflation of Food & Beverages. The increase was recorded by Negeri Sembilan at 3.3 per cent, followed by Johor (3.0%), Wilayah Persekutuan Putrajaya (3.0%), Selangor (2.9%), Terengganu (2.8%), Sabah (2.7%), Melaka (2.6%) and Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur (2.5%), while, other states showed an increase below the national inflation of Food & Beverages (2.3%) in April 2025.

The monthly headline inflation increased 0.1 per cent in April 2025 as compared to March 2025. The increase was attributed by Personal Care, Social Protection & Miscellaneous Goods & Services (1.3%); Information & Communication (0.9%) and Recreation, Sport & Culture (0.4%). Nevertheless, the decrease in Food & Beverages (-0.1%) and Furnishings, Household Equipment & Routine Household Maintenance (-0.1%), to a certain extent offset the inflation from increasing further. Meanwhile, core inflation increased to 2.0 per cent in April 2025 as compared to the preceding month (1.9%). The increase was driven by Personal Care, Social Protection & Miscellaneous Goods & Services (4.1%); Food & Beverages (3.6%) and Restaurant & Accommodation Services (2.9%).

In comparison to inflation in other selected countries, inflation in Malaysia (1.4%) was lower than inflation in Viet Nam (3.1%) and Indonesia (2.0%). However, the rate was higher than Thailand (-0.2%) and China (-0.1%).