Malaysia's consumer price inflation accelerated at a faster-than-expected pace in July, figures from the Department of Statistics showed Wednesday.
The consumer price index climbed 3.3 percent year-over-year in July, exceeding economists' expectations for a 2.9 percent increase. In June, prices had risen 2.5 percent.
The increase in July was largely driven by significant rise in prices of alcoholic beverages and tobacco, health, miscellaneous goods and services, restaurants and hotels, household equipment and routine household maintenance and food and non-alcoholic beverages, the statistical office said.
Prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages grew 3.8 percent annually in July and that for non-food products rose by 3.0 percent.
On a monthly basis, consumer prices increased at a faster pace of 0.8 percent in July, following a 0.6 percent hike in the preceding month.
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