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Malaysia's inflation, as measured by the consumer price index (CPI), eased to 3.4 per cent in March from 3.7 per cent in February, official data showed on Thursday.

The Department of Statistics said in a statement that the slower increase was mainly driven by the decrease in petrol price, which eased the inflation of the transport group to 2.4 per cent.

This was in line with the downward trend of Brent crude oil price, which was at $78.53 per barrel during March, as compared to $115.59 a year ago.

Nevertheless, inflation for food and non-alcoholic beverages as well as that for restaurants and hotels remained high at 6.9 per cent and 7.2 per cent respectively, even though it was lower than February's figure.

For the first quarter, the CPI rose 3.6 per cent as compared to the same quarter of the preceding year.

On a quarterly basis, CPI grew at 0.6 per cent at the same rate as recorded in the fourth quarter of 2022.

Core inflation, which measures changes in the prices of all goods and services, excluding volatile prices of fresh food as well as administered prices of goods by the government, still registered a higher increase of 3.8 per cent as compared to 3.9 per cent in February.

Meanwhile, monthly headline inflation in March increased marginally at 0.1 per cent as compared to February.