Personal Finance Term
CPI
Consumer Price Index
A measure of inflation published monthly by DOSM (Department of Statistics Malaysia) that tracks how the prices of a basket of goods and services change over time.
Malaysia's CPI basket includes food and non-alcoholic beverages (the largest component at ~30%), housing, water and utilities, and transport. When CPI rises 3% year-on-year, the same RM100 in savings buys 3% less than it did a year ago.
CPI is the most common inflation measure used in Malaysia, though it has critics — housing costs are underweighted compared to actual household spending, and subsidised fuel prices have historically dampened headline CPI. Core CPI (excluding food and energy) is a better measure of underlying inflation trends.