Anticipating the price of goods in "n" years

Approximate this by calculating the Future Value, FV using financial calculator or excel.

Say, GSC  movie ticket at RM 10.00. Ignoring personal inflation rate, we take CPI increment of 3% per year, in 10 years.

In Excel, type "=fv(", then you will key in "0.03" for "rate", "10" for "nper" which mean n number of periods, "0" for "pmt" which stands for periodic payment, and "-10" for "[pv],  present value for which it must be negative.

You will get the answer RM 14.80. This is the expected movie ticket price in 2022 if inflation remains constant each year.

Malaysia Consumer Price Index

So you always read about the inflation rate reported in the news, such as here.

How those numbers are computed anyway?

Every month, the Department of Statistics will actually publish the Consumer Price Index or CPI to reflect the changes of price for various categories of items. Different categories of items have different weighting, and then there is percentage change month over month, year over year.

I am sure that you realize, sometimes the price of food at your local eateries does not conform to this official survey. Well, I would say, use this as a reference only when taking inflation rate into any financial planning endeavour.