BEIJING: China’s consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, rose 2.7 percent year on year in July, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) reported on Wednesday.

Data from the East Asian country’s statistics agency showed that nonfood prices grew 1.9 percent last month from the year-earlier figure, easing from the 2.5-percent climb in June.

Core CPI, which excludes food and energy prices, gained 0.8 percent year on year in July, lower than June’s 1-percent increase.

Month on month, the CPI inched up 0.5 percent due to rising pork and fresh vegetable prices, as well as seasonal factors, NBS senior statistician Dong Lijuan said.

Food prices jumped 3 percent from the prior month, driving up monthly consumer inflation by about 0.53 percentage point.

Prices of pork, a staple meat in China, increased 25.6 percent month on month in July, partly because of the reluctance of some hog farmers to sell while consumer demand recovered, Dong said.

Chen Guanghua, an official at the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, told a news conference last month that there would not be a “sustained and sharp increase” in hog prices as production was sufficient.

Prices of fresh vegetables rose 10.3 percent from a month earlier due to continuous high temperatures in many regions of the country, while those of fresh fruit dropped 3.8 percent because of increasing market supply.

Nonfood prices declined 0.1 percent month on month, dragging the CPI down by 0.07 percentage point. Due to declining international oil prices, gasoline and diesel prices fell 3.4 percent and 3.6 percent, respectively.

The cost of air tickets, hotel accommodation and tourism rose 6.1 percent, 5 percent and 3.5 percent, respectively, on account of increased summer travels.

Wednesday’s data also showed that China’s producer price index (PPI), which measures costs for goods at the factory gate, climbed 4.2 percent year on year in July.

The figure was slower than the 6.1-percent year-on-year increase in June. Month on month, the PPI fell 1.3 percent in July.

As the monetary policies of major economies continue to tighten and international commodity prices decline, China faces less pressure from imported inflation, Wen Bin, chief economist at China Minsheng Bank, said in a co-authored research note.

However, he warned of uncertainties stemming from the global geopolitical situation.

Wen also estimated that China would see increasing pressure from structural inflation.