KUALA LUMPUR, March 24 (Xinhua) -- Malaysia's inflation, as measured by the consumer price index (CPI), remained at 3.7 percent in February, official data showed Friday.

The Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) said in a statement that the increase in Malaysia's inflation in February was still driven by restaurants and hotels (7.4 percent) and food and non-alcoholic beverages (7 percent).

Nevertheless, the slower increase in the transport group, which was at 3.7 percent, as compared to January (4 percent) to a certain extent offset further rise in inflation.

The increase in Malaysia's inflation was also due to the increase in furnishings, household equipment and routine household maintenance (3.4 percent), miscellaneous goods and services (2.5 percent) and health (1.8 percent).

Meanwhile, the 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, registered a slower increase of 3.9 percent in February as compared to the same month of the previous year.

The highest increase was recorded by the food and non-alcoholic beverages group with a 7.6 percent growth.