kuala lumpurmalaysias consumer prices continued to rise in february as prices of food and nonalcoholic beverages jumped the southeast asian nations february consumerprice index grew 37 compared with the same period a year earlier the same increase as in january data from the department of statistics showed on friday the result was slightly higher than the median forecast for 36 rise from a wall street journal poll of eight economists food and nonalcoholic beverages prices in february grew 70 on year after rising 67 in january the category had a 295 weighting in the cpi prices at restaurants and hotels rose 74 on year compared with januarys gain of 68 supported the rise in overall inflation prices for housing water electricity gas and other fuels rose 17 compared with a 15 rise in january miscellaneous good and services prices grew 25 compared with januarys 23 gain and health prices increased 18 compared with a 16 rise in january the increase in transport prices slowed to 37 on year compared with the 40 rise in january prices for furnishings household equipment and routine household maintenance grew 34 compared with the 35 rise in january helping to ease the rise in inflation malaysias february cpi rose 02 compared with the month before the same rise as in january