China consumer prices up 2.1% in October

BEIJING - China's consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, grew 2.1 percent year on year in October, up from September's 1.9 percent, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced Wednesday.

The October data ended previous drops in the past five-consecutive months starting from 2.3 percent in April, when the CPI hit its highest level since July 2014.

On a month-on-month basis, the CPI fell 0.1 percent in October.

NBS statistician Yu Qiumei attributed the stronger growth of inflation in October largely to a low comparison base of last year.

The price of vegetables and fruit rose 13 percent and 6 percent, respectively, year on year in October, compared with 7.5-percent and 6.7-percent increases in September.

In addition, the price of services also increased in October, with education service prices rising 4.8 percent year on year, compared with 3.2-percent rise in September.

Since January 2016, CPI has been calculated using a new comparison base and included more products and services, while slightly reducing the weighting of food.