By Mohd Khairul Ramli
For most Malaysians, the rising cost of living is a constant worry that our ringgit just doesn’t stretch as far as it used to. Yet, when the government trots out the official inflation rate, a sense of disconnect often sets in. The numbers simply don’t seem to capture the daily struggles faced by ordinary citizens. This begs the question: is the inflation rate a reliable indicator of our cost of living, or is it a flawed metric that masks a harsher reality?
The answer, unfortunately, leans towards the latter. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) is the most common measure of inflation and tracks the average price changes of a fixed basket of goods and services and in this case, designed to represent typical Malaysian household spending patterns. But therein lies the challenge: “typical” doesn’t necessarily translate to everyone’s reality.