May. 11, 2012 (China Knowledge) - China's consumer price index (CPI), the major gauge of inflation, increased 3.4% year on year in April this year, according to statistics released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) today.

The CPI growth last month was lower than the 3.6% increase in March.
 
Last month, China saw its CPI fall 0.1% from March.  

The CPI in urban areas rose 3.4% year on year in March, while the CPI in rural areas also increased 3.3%year on year, according to the statistics.
   
The NBS said food prices went up at a slower growth of 7.0% year on year last month, driven by a 3.7% increase in grain prices, 8.2% rise in the prices of meat, poultry and processed products, 27.8% increase in the prices of fresh vegetable and an 11.5% increase in the prices of aquatic products. The price of pork grew 5.2% year on year last month, which contributed 0.16 percentage points to the overall CPI growth last month, but the prices of fresh eggs fell 5.9% year on year.  Non-food prices rose 1.7% year on year in April.  
 
The prices of tobacco products, alcohol and related products climbed 3.4% year on year, mainly driven by a 7.8% increase in alcohol prices, while the prices of household appliances and maintenance services edged up 2.2% from a year earlier.

The price of personal and health care products increased 2.5% year on year in April, while the price of clothing rose 3.6%, with a 3.8% increase in the price of garments and 2.8% increase in footwear.

There was an increase of 0.3% in the prices of transportation and communications, and an increase of 1.8% in housing costs that were driven by 2.0% increase in the prices of water, electricity and fuels, 1.5% increase in the prices of building and decoration materials and 2.0% rise in housing rentals.

In the first four months, the country's CPI grew 3.7% year on year.