Photo: Xinhua

 
China's consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, rose 1.3 percent year on year in May, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed Wednesday.

The growth was faster than the 0.9-percent year-on-year growth in April, which is mainly due to the stronger carry-over effect of last year's price changes, said Dong Lijuan, a senior statistician with the NBS.

The carryover effect contributed 0.7 percentage points to the CPI growth, while new price increases contributed 0.6 percentage points, the NBS data showed.

Food prices climbed 0.3 percent year on year in May, reversing the 0.7-percent decline in April, pushing up the consumer inflation by 0.05 percentage points, according to the data.

On a monthly basis, the CPI declined 0.2 percent, with food prices down 1.7 percent, narrowing the decline by 0.7 percentage points from April, NBS data showed.

Wednesday's data also showed China's producer prices, which measures costs for goods at the factory gate, rose 9 percent year on year in May.