China's consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, edged up 0.2 percent year on year in January, official data showed on Wednesday.

The headline CPI growth moderated from the 0.8-percent gain in the previous month, largely due to base effects linked to the timing of the Chinese New Year and a sharper fall in energy prices, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

Last year's Spring Festival fell in January, pushing up food and some service prices and leaving a higher comparison base. As a result, food prices fell 0.7 percent from a year earlier in January 2026, subtracting about 0.11 percentage points from the CPI, NBS statistician Dong Lijuan explained.

Despite the softer headline reading, underlying inflation demonstrated signs of improvement in January. The core CPI, which excludes food and energy prices, rose 0.8 percent year on year, indicating a continued, moderate recovery in consumer demand.

Meanwhile, the producer price index (PPI), which measures costs for goods at the factory gate, went down 1.4 percent year on year in January, narrowing by 0.5 percentage points compared to the previous month, the NBS said.

On a monthly basis, the PPI rose 0.4 percent in January, 0.2 percentage points higher than the increase recorded in December.

China's PPI has increased on a monthly basis for four consecutive months, Dong said, noting that efforts to develop a unified national market led to price increases in the cement manufacturing and the photovoltaic industries.

Stronger demand in some sectors also contributed to the increase, particularly in semiconductor materials and external storage devices linked to the artificial intelligence industry, as well as in ceremonial goods manufacturing and agricultural product processing ahead of the Chinese New Year.

Rising international non-ferrous metal prices pushed up month-on-month prices in the domestic non-ferrous metals sector, contributing further to the increase, Dong added.

(With input from Xinhua)