People shop in a supermarket in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, Feb 4, 2020. (WANG SONG / XINHUA)

BEIJING - China's consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, rose 5.4 percent year on year in January, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) 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.

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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.

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.

China's PPI up 0.1%

China's producer price index (PPI), which measures costs for goods at the factory gate, rose 0.1 percent year on year in January, according to the NBS.

The slight increase last month was the first year-on-year increase in eight months, the NBS data showed.

On a month-on-month basis, the PPI remained flat for the second month in a row, according to the NBS.

Factory prices of capital goods decreased 0.4 percent year on year in January, shrinking from the 1.2 percent decline in December.

Seventeen of the 40 surveyed industries saw price hikes month on month, while 18 reported price drops and five witnessed unchanged prices.

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Among major industries, oil and natural gas extraction saw faster price increase in January, with prices up 17.5 percent year on year, expanding by 11.7 percentage points.

Prices for non-ferrous metal mining and dressing edged up 2.4 percent year on year, while ferrous metal mining and dressing went up 0.7 percent over one year ago in January.

NBS senior statistician Dong Lijuan said the 0.1 percent year-on-year gain in January was the carry-over effect of last year's price movements.