China's CPI up 5.4% year on year in January

China's consumer price index, a main gauge of inflation, rose 5.4 percent year on year in January, the National Bureau of Statistics said Monday.

The increase was up from 4.5 percent for December.

The hike was mainly driven by the effect of Spring Festival holiday and the novel coronavirus pneumonia epidemic, said NBS senior statistician Dong Lijuan.

Food prices grew 20.6 percent year on year last month, up from 17.4 percent in December, while non-food prices gained 1.6 percent, 0.3 percentage points higher than that of December.

Pork prices rose 116 percent year on year last month, while vegetable prices saw a 17.1 percent increase from a year ago.

The CPI in urban and rural areas posted a year-on-year growth of 5.1 percent and 6.3 percent, respectively.

The CPI of Hubei Province rose 5.5 percent year on year in January, generally in line with the growth of the country's CPI, reflecting a positive effect of the government's efforts on securing supply and stabilizing prices, said Dong.

Monday's data also showed that China's producer price index, which measures costs for goods at the factory gate, rose 0.1 percent year on year in January.