Malaysia's Consumer Price Index (CPI), which is a gauge of the inflation, increased by 1.7 percent in 2010 to 114, compared with 112.1 in the same period in 2009.
This was due to the increases in the indices of all the main groups except for clothing and footwear (-1.4 percent) and communication (-0.2 percent), the Malaysian Statistics Department said in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday.
The indices for food and non-alcoholic beverages, and non-food had increased by 2.4 percent and 1.3 percent respectively.
Other indices of the main groups that had risen included transport (+1.6 percent); housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels (+1.1 percent); education (+1.7 percent) and health (+ 1.6 percent).
Based on the weights assigned to the main groups, food and non-alcoholic beverages; housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels; and transport together accounted for 76.2 percent of the overall increase recorded for the current period.