BEIJING, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- China's consumer inflation picked up in August, driven by higher food prices, while the factory-gate prices also rose, fueled by rising commodity costs.
Consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, rose 1.8 percent year on year in August, up from July's 1.4 percent, marking the highest level since January, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) Saturday.
On a monthly basis, the index was up 0.4 percent last month.
NBS attributed the faster CPI growth to higher food prices as adverse weather pushed up vegetable prices while falling output led to sharp growth in egg prices.
Food prices, the biggest component of the CPI, were up 1.2 percent month on month, NBS said.
Vegetable prices rose 8.5 percent from July as scorching summer and widespread heavy rains increased transportation costs. Egg prices climbed 13.5 percent from July while the prices of pork, a staple meat in China, rose 1.3 percent month on month.
Year on year, food prices edged down 0.2 percent in August, while non-food prices gained 2.3 percent.
Excluding volatile food and energy prices, the core CPI increased 2.2 percent year on year in August.
For the first eight months of the year, CPI climbed 1.5 percent from one year earlier.
Producer price index (PPI), which measures costs of goods at the factory gate, rose 6.3 percent year on year in August, according to NBS.
The pace of PPI growth accelerated from 5.5 percent in July. On a month-on-month basis, the index was up 0.9 percent last month.
Prices of steel, non-ferrous metals as well as oil and natural gas all recorded faster increases in August compared with one year earlier.
PPI grew 6.4 percent year on year for January-August.
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