China's consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, posted a milder increase in April due to falling food prices, official data showed Thursday.

The CPI rose 1.8 percent year-on-year last month, compared with 2.1 percent for March, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

On a month-on-month basis, the CPI edged down 0.2 percent.

Lower food prices were "the major reason" for the CPI decline from March, said NBS statistician Sheng Guoqing.

Food prices slipped 1.9 percent month-on-month and climbed only 0.7 percent year on year.

The price of pork, China's staple meat, slumped 16.1 percent year on year, dragging down CPI growth by 0.43 percentage points. It fell 6.6 percent month on month.

Non-food prices rose 2.1 percent from the same period of last year and 0.2 percent from March.

China aims to keep annual CPI growth at around 3 percent this year, the same as the target for 2017. 

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