China's consumer price index (CPI),a measure of inflation, was up 4.9 percent in August, the National Bureau of Statistics announced on Wednesday.
The figure, compared with 6.3 percent in July, 7.1 percent in June and 7.7 percent in May, was lower than most forecasts.
"The continuous decline of the CPI is a positive sign as it shows that the government's measures to ease inflationary pressures were effective," said Yao Jingyuan, chief economist with the bureau, who attributed the decline to falling food prices.
Food prices, which account for more than a third of the CPI calculation, rose 10.3 percent in August, 4.1 percentage points lower than July.
The price of meat increased 8.0 percent, down by 8 percentage points over July, while that of pork rose 1.0 percent. Cooking oil went up 22.7 percent, vegetables down 0.5 percent, aquatic products up 16.4 percent and grains up 8.0 percent.
In the first eight months of this year, the inflation indicator rose 7.3 percent from the same period last year: 7.0 percent for urban areas and 8.0 percent for the countryside.
The producer price index (PPI) for industrial products was up 10.1 percent in August over the same period last year, but experts say the PPI rise would not immediately increase pressure on the CPI.
Source: Xinhua
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