Chief Statistician Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said 184 food items of the overall 552 items in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) “basket” recorded an increase.
He said the increase was also higher as compared with 0.7 percent recorded during the pre-pandemic year of 2019.
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the daily lives of the community. However, vaccination programmes have helped restore business confidence and further increase consumer confidence to go out shopping, Mohd Uzir said in a statement following the release of the Analysis of Annual CPI, 2021 report on June 1.
The report contains a detailed analysis of the inflation time series from 2010 to 2021 by 12 main groups of goods and services.
Overall, the 2.5 percent increase was contributed by the index of transport (11 percent), food and beverages (1.7 percent), furnishings, household equipment and routine household maintenance (1.6 percent) and housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels (1.5 percent) which contributed 72 percent to the total CPI weight, he said.
The increase in global commodities prices had impacted the food inflation. The rise of chicken prices above the 2020 average price was due to the rise of price of animal feedstuff, Mohd Uzir said.
He said the lack of import supply, movement control orders (MCOs), as well as the closure of the national border, have influenced the fluctuation of prices in the local market.
