KUALA LUMPUR, May 8 (Xinhua) -- Malaysia's services producer price index (SPPI), which measures changes in producer prices for the domestic services sector, continued its upward trend, rising by 0.6 percent in the first quarter of 2025, official data showed Thursday.

The Department of Statistics Malaysia said in a statement that the arts, entertainment & recreation index increased by 6.6 percent, driven by other amusement and recreation activities.

Meanwhile, the accommodation and food & beverage service activities index continued to increase by 3.6 percent, supported by increases in the restaurants and mobile food service activities and beverage service activities indices.

Other indices that also recorded increases were education (1.2 percent), health (0.6 percent), professional (0.5 percent) and real estate activities (0.1 percent).

Conversely, the transportation index recorded a decline of 3.1 percent, mainly due to the decrease in the passenger air transport index.

At the same time, the Information & Communication index recorded a decrease by 0.2 percent, influenced by a fall in wireless telecommunications activities.

On a quarter-on-quarter basis, the SPPI increased by 0.3 percent, maintaining the same rate as in the previous quarter.