China's consumer price index down 0.2% in Feb

China's consumer price index, a main gauge of inflation, dropped by 0.2 percent year-on-year last month, versus a 0.3 percent decline in January, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Wednesday.

The decline in CPI narrowed as non-food prices fell slower amid growing demand for cultural and entertainment services during the Spring Festival holiday and rising global oil prices, the NBS said.

Non-food prices dropped by 0.2 percent year-on-year in February, narrowing from a 0.8 percent decline in the previous month. 

Food prices dropped by 0.2 percent year-on-year last month, versus a 1.6 percent rise in January, as pork prices declined by 14.9 percent from a high comparison base last year amid a continuous recovery in pork production, the bureau said. 

The growth in core CPI, which excludes food and energy prices, came in at zero last month, up from a 0.3 percent decline in the previous month. 

The country's producer price index, which gauges factory-gate prices, rose by 1.7 percent year-on-year in February, up from 0.3 percent a month earlier, as global commodity prices continued to rise while domestic demand recovered, the NBS said.