🎈 Inflation Impact Calculator
What today's ringgit will really buy in the future.
This is why money "safely" sitting in a low-interest account quietly shrinks — and why long-term savings need returns at least matching inflation.
Common questions
How does inflation reduce the value of savings?
Inflation lowers what each ringgit buys, so money held at a return below the inflation rate loses purchasing power even though the balance grows. At 3% inflation, RM100,000 buys roughly what RM74,000 buys today after 10 years, and about RM55,000 after 20. This is the central argument for investing long-term money rather than leaving it all in cash.
What is a real return?
Your real return is your nominal return minus inflation. A fixed deposit paying 3.5% during 3% inflation delivers a real return of about 0.5% — the balance grows, but purchasing power barely moves. Comparing investments on real rather than nominal returns is the single most useful adjustment most people never make.
What has Malaysian inflation typically been?
Malaysia's headline consumer price inflation has generally run in the low single digits over the past two decades, with occasional spikes driven by fuel and food prices and by subsidy changes. For planning purposes, testing a range of 2–4% is more useful than picking a single figure. Current data is published by the Department of Statistics Malaysia.