China CPI rises 2.6% in 2013

China’s consumer price index (CPI) grew 2.5% year on year in December, and 2.6% for the whole of 2013, well below the government’s full-year target of 3.5% , official data revealed on Thursday.December’s CPI, a main gauge of inflation, was 0.5 percentage points lower than the previous month, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said in a statement.December’s inflation was 2.5% in both cities and rural areas. Food prices, which account for roughly a third of CPI, rose 4.1% in December from a year ago, while non-food products edged up 1.7%, according to China’s (Xinhua) News Agency.On a month-to-month basis, December CPI edged up slightly by 0.3% from November. Food prices increased 0.6% from November while prices of non-food products were up 0.1%, according to the NBS.The producer price index (PPI), which measures inflation at the wholesale level, fell 1.4% year on year in December. Annualized PPI for 2013 fell 1.9% year on year, the NBS data showed.