KUALA LUMPUR, Nov. 10 (Xinhua) -- Malaysia's health inflation accelerated to 3 percent in 2025 from 1.3 percent in 2024, driven mainly by higher costs of health services, medicines and medical devices, official data showed on Tuesday.
The health services category recorded a 4.4-percent increase, compared with 0.9 percent in 2024, largely due to a 9.1-percent rise in health-related insurance expenditure, which was unchanged in the previous year, the Department of Statistics Malaysia said in a statement.
Medicine, the largest component of the health price index (HPI), which accounts for 38.9 percent of its weight, rose 2.8 percent in 2025, up from 2.2 percent in 2024.
Within this category, medicines, vaccines and other pharmaceutical preparations, as well as herbal and homeopathic products, both recorded price increases of 4.5 percent.
Meanwhile, medical device prices rose 1.1 percent, compared with 0.6 percent in 2024, supported by a 1.6-percent increase in medical diagnostic products, up from 0.3 percent previously. ■