19th August 2026 - 2 min read
Malaysia’s inflation slowed to 1.8% in July, and food prices rose, with chicken prices increasing 6.7% from a year earlier.
The latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) data from the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) showed that inflation eased from 1.9% in June. Prices were unchanged overall between June and July.
Food and beverage inflation increased to 1.8% in July from 1.4% in June, with prices of food at home and food away from home both increasing.
Meat prices rose 3.2% from a year earlier, and chicken prices rose 6.7%. Cereals and oils and fats each rose 0.2%.
Transport inflation slowed to 1.4% in July from 2.8% in June, partly because it got cheaper to run a private vehicle, including the new BUDI diesel subsidy that started on 1 July.
Eligible private diesel vehicle owners can buy subsidised diesel at RM2.10 per litre under the programme.
This helped offset higher prices in other parts of the household budget. Inflation for housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels also increased to 1.8% in July, due to higher water-related charges as well as electricity, gas and fuel costs.
The 1.8% inflation rate means prices were higher than they were a year ago. They rose more slowly overall in July.
Core inflation, which excludes some volatile and government-controlled prices, also eased to 1.8% from 1.9% in June.
For households, the overall rate fell, but food and some household bills rose, while transport costs climbed more slowly.
The CPI tells you the overall trend, but if you want to see how specific items, like chicken, are priced at the shops you use, KPDN’s PriceCatcher is available. The database tracks prices collected and verified by ground staff across more than two million price records each month, so you can check the price of a specific item at different shops.
DOSM recommends using it alongside its CPI data because PriceCatcher is designed for monitoring specific prices and locations.
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Christina writes about personal finance with an eye for making the complicated feel straightforward. She is drawn to the everyday money decisions people face and genuinely enjoys finding the clearest way to explain them. Between articles, she is probably napping, on a hiking trail, or terrorising her sister’s cats.
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