KUALA LUMPUR, June 28 — Maybank Investment Bank Bhd (Maybank IB) has revised upwards its inflation rate forecast for this year to 3.4 per cent from 2.7 per cent previously.
Chief economist Suhaimi Ilias said it has also raised its inflation rate projection for 2023 to 4.1 per cent from 2.5 per cent.
“This is because we have incorporated the higher prices of food items like chicken and cooking oil starting July this year following the higher ceiling price for standard whole chicken and removal of price subsidy for bottled cooking oil, as well as the assumption of a fuel subsidy review next year,” he said in a recorded statement today.
Suhaimi said that to mitigate the immediate cost-of-living impact of the food and fuel inflation, the government announced no hike in the power and water tariffs in Peninsular Malaysia for the second half of this year as well as an additional allocation of RM630 million under the Bantuan Keluarga Malaysia cash assistance.
The overall inflation accelerated to 2.8 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) in May 2022 from 2.3 per cent y-o-y in April.
— Bernama
