China's October CPI up 5.5%

Customers purchase candies at a supermarket in Jiujiang, Jiangxi Province. [CFP]

China's consumer price index (CPI), the main gauge of inflation, rose 5.5 percent year-on-year in October, softening from September's 6.1 percent, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Wednesday.

The October CPI growth marked the slowest surge since May this year, compared with 6.1 percent in September, 6.2 percent in August, 6.5 percent in July and 6.4 percent in June.

On a monthly basis, the cost of living added 0.1 percent in October, said the NBS in a statement on its website.

Food prices, which account for nearly one third of the basket of goods in the nation's CPI calculation, moved up 11.9 percent in October from a year earlier but dipped 0.2 percent month-on-month, according to the NBS.

Prior to the NBS announcement, many economists expected the October CPI to rise by 5.4 percent year-on-year.

China's CPI hit a 37-month high of 6.5 percent in July this year, which was far above the Chinese government's full-year target of 4 percent for 2011.

China's Producer Price Index (PPI), a main gauge of inflation at the wholesale level, rose five percent in October year-on-year, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) Wednesday.