Malaysia's February consumer prices seen falling 0.3 perfect year on year: Reuters poll

Reuters
A woman shops in a wet market in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, February 18, 2016. REUTERS/Olivia Harris/File Photo

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysia's consumer prices are expected to fall again in February, but at a slower rate than the previous month, a Reuters poll showed on Tuesday.

The consumer price index in February was forecast to fall 0.3 percent from a year earlier, according to the median estimate among 12 economists surveyed.

In January, prices slipped into deflationary territory for the first time since November 2009, with the index declining 0.7 percent year-on-year amid a sharp drop in retail fuel prices.

Price pressures have moderated since the government withdrew an unpopular consumption tax in June 2018 and reinstated a narrower sales and services tax (SST) three months later.

The central bank said last month that Malaysia does not face serious deflationary pressures. Headline inflation, which came in at 1 percent in 2018, was likely to average higher this year, Bank Negara Malaysia said in February.

(Reporting by Rozanna Latiff; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)