PETALING JAYA, 16 Jan: The purchasing power of consumers continue to decline as the rate of inflation rose from 1.2 percent in December 2012 to 2.9 percent in November 2013; by 2.4 times in a year.
The rate of inflation has also increased each month throughout 2013, with the highest jump in September 2013 due to the increase in petrol price by 20 cents per litre and the increase in price of other goods.
The Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) de facto leader, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, said that the data was obtained from the Bank Negara official data and the global economic analysts’ institution, Trading Economics.
“On 7 November 2013, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) in September 2013 rose to 2.6 percent compared to 1.9 percent in previous months,” Anwar said in a press conference at the PKR Headquarters today.
Anwar said that the people should be aware that this burden continues to increase when the Federal Government implements programmes to cut subsidies and to introduce the Goods and Services Tax (GST) next year.
“Continuous increase in the rate of inflation will be a loss to the country, especially when the rate is higher than the increase in income of the people.
“This loss will be realised when the people are forced to change their lifestyles to a more affordable and sustainable alternative,” he added.
Anwar added that this situation will result in the contraction of income of traders which will lead to the deterioration of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).