Malaysia's Ismail Sabri resists rush to election as inflation bites

TOKYO -- Malaysian Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob is under pressure to call for an early election. But in an exclusive interview with Nikkei, he argued that rising food prices and other living costs are reasons to put off the polls.

"We will have to wait for the right time [to call the election]," the prime minister said on the sidelines of Nikkei's Future of Asia conference in Tokyo last week. "We are now facing a period of increasing inflation with high prices... do you think this is the right time?"