A recent study by the Khazanah Research Institute titled “From Income to Wellbeing: The State of Households 2026” reveals that Malaysian families are allocating more funds to dining out than to purchasing groceries for home cooking. Data indicates that monthly expenditure on eating out reached RM902.70, surpassing the RM875.80 spent on grocery supplies. This category now represents 16.2 per cent of total household budgets, an increase from 12.6 per cent recorded in 2016. Between 2022 and 2024, dining out emerged as the primary factor driving higher household costs. The trend is particularly evident within the bottom 80 per cent of households, which experienced a cumulative rise in food-related spending of nearly 1.5 times between 2019 and 2024. In contrast, the top 20 per cent of earners saw a more modest increase in their food expenditure during the same period.
Source : Malay Mail
Photo : Malay Mail
