Permatang Pauh - Abdullah pre-empt move to 'buy' election

Malaysiakini reported that Abdullah's government announces that price of RON97 petrol will go down by 15 sen from RM2.70 to RM2.55 per litre at the pumps beginning midnight, a reduction of 5.6 percent.

The government announces that price of RON97 petrol will go down by 15 sen from RM2.70 to RM2.55 per litre at the pumps beginning midnight, a reduction of 5.6 percent.

Petrol and diesel price will drop by between eight sen and 22 sen a litre from Saturday.

The price of RON97 petrol will be reduced by 15 sen to RM2.55 a litre from RM2.70, while RON92 would be 22 sen less at RM2.40, from RM2.62

The retail price of diesel would drop by eight sen to RM2.50 a litre.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah ahmad Badawi announced the new prices in a statement after Friday's Cabinet meeting.

He said the prices were determined by taking into account the actual price from Aug 1 to 21 and the 30 sen per litre subsidy borne by the government while the subsidy for diesel, based on the new price, was 50 sen a litre.

"The cabinet decided to bring forward the enforcement date for adjustment of the new petrol price," he said.

Meanwhile, Bernama reported that The Consumer Price Index (CPI) for January to July increased by 4.4 percent to 109.8 from 105.2 recorded in the same period last year, the Department of Statistics said Friday.

The CPI was up by 8.5 percent to 114.7 from 105.7 versus the same month last year and was up by 1.1 per cent when compared with the previous month.

Among the contributory factors for the increase were the substantial rise in the electricity tariff announced by the government effective July 1 and the knock-on effect from the petrol and diesel price increase, it said.

The index for Food & Non-Alcoholic Beverages for July compared to the same month last year showed high percentage change of 11.2 percent and the index for non-food rose by 7.3 percent.

The period between January and July showed increases in the index for food & non-alcoholic beverages at 6.9 percent and non-food 3.2 percent.

The index for food & non-alcoholic beverages rose by 1.5 percent while the index for non-food increased by 1.0 percent compared to the previous month.

The 4.4 percent increase in the CPI was brought about by increases observed in the indices of all the main groups except those of clothing & footwear and communication which dropped by 0.6 percent respectively, it said.

Notable among these increases were the main groups with high weights namely food & non-alcoholic beverages (+ 6.9 percent); Transport (+ 6.7 percent) and housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels (+ 1.4 percent).

Other increases were alcoholic beverages & tobacco (+ 7.7 percent); restaurants & hotels (+ 7.0 percent ); miscellaneous goods & services (+ 3.4 percent ); recreation services & culture (+ 2.1 percent ); education (+ 2.1 percent ); furnishings, household equipment & routine household maintenance (+ 2.0 percent ); and health (+ 1.9 percent).

The three main groups, food & non-alcoholic beverages; housing, water, electricity, gas & other fuels and transport together accounted for 82.6 percent of the overall increase recorded for the current period.

The department said the month-on-month CPI was up by 1.1 percent were attributable to the increase shown in the selected main groups namely transport (+2.6 percent); food & non-alcoholic beverages (+1.5 percent); furnishings, household equipment & routine household maintenance (+1.0 percent); housing, water, electricity, gas & other fuels; restaurants & hotels and miscellaneous goods & services (+0.7 percent) respectively); Health And Recreation Services & Culture (+0.3 percent respectively); and alcoholic beverages & tobacco and education (+0.1 percent respectively).

Meanwhile, the index for clothing & footwear and communication showed a drop by 0.4 and 0.1 percent, respectively.

The 1.5 percent increase in the index for food & non-alcoholic beverages in July 2008 compared with that of previous month was the result of an increase in the index for food at home (+ 1.6 percent); food away from home (+ 1.2 percent) and coffee, tea, cocoa & non-alcoholic beverages (+ 0.6 percent).

Among the food items which recorded notable increase in the index in July 2008 compared with the previous month were cucumber (+ 9.4 percent); beef patty (+ 7.2 percent ); papaya (+ 6.1 percent ); selar scad (fish) (+ 6.0 percent); french beans (+ 5.9 percent ); mixed cereals (+ 5.9 percent); pears (+ 5.8 percent ); and spinach (+ 5.2 percent ).

Meanwhile, the index of some food items declined in July than the previous month.

Among them were long cabbage (- 5.0 percent); carrots (- 4.2 percent); round cabbage (- 3.9 percent); green apples (- 3.3 percent); and rambutan (- 2.7 percent).

A reclassification of items according to their durability and services rendered showed increases in the index for non-durable goods (+ 2.1 percent ); durable goods (+ 0.6 percent ) and services ( + 0.5 percent ); while the index for semi-durable goods dwindled by 0.1 percent.