Inflation Coming to Malaysia 2021-2022

 "Inflation is a form of taxation"

Recently I notice prices of food seems to be increasing steady. Friends and colleagues around also seem to agree to it. 

My regular won ton noodles which I usually order from a normal Chinese hawker restaurant last month was RM7.50. This price is already considered high considering last time I could get a plate for RM5.50 few years back (1-3 years).  Today the price went up to RM8.  


Inflation is expected to become a much bigger problem as countries print more money and push for stimulus to recover from covid19 pandemic.

M1 money supply grew at extreme exponential levels in US. M1 defined is the money in circulation in the economy. I'm no economist but at least that's the rough definition of M1. 

A lot of US's inflation will eventually be exported out to the world as they will not absorb it entirely. As the US currency is the world's reserve currency, a lot of countries hold US dollar reserves in their treasury. As more dollars are printed, the value of each countries' reserve also will dip. My hunch is that is one of the reasons US will not experience hyper inflation like Venezuela and Zimbabwe.


In Malaysia, the M1 money supply also jumped sharply in 2020. While Bank Negara Malaysia forecasted inflation to go to 2.5%..everyone know this figure does not reflect the real inflation rate for the average man on the street.

"Inflation is taxation without legislation"


Heck, even insurance premiums are affected by inflation with the cost of medical services increasing.



I recently dropped by a normal hawker stall at USJ and found prices of a humble bowl of noodles costing more than RM6 already.



Links

https://tradingeconomics.com/malaysia/money-supply-m1