China's consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, rose by 1.9 percent year-on-year in December, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Thursday.

The increase was down from 2.2 percent for November, according to NBS.  ‍

Food and oil prices influenced CPI

The rise of CPI in December was mainly thanks to the rise of food prices. Food prices last month rose 2.5 percent month-to-month, which caused CPI's rise by about 0.48 percentage points month-to-month, according to Sheng Guoqing, a senior statistician of the NBS.

The prices of fresh fruits, fresh vegetables, aquatic products, mutton and beef are the main factors on CPI, the rise of which caused CPI's rise by about 0.44 percentage points, while the price decline of eggs and pork dragged down CPI by about 0.05 percentage points, according to Sheng.

The prices of oil and diesel decreased by 0.5 percent and 0.3 percent respectively, down from an increase of 12.8 percent and 14.2 percent in November 2018. 

PPI saw a downward trend

China's producer price index (PPI) rose by 0.9 percent year-on-year in December.

The PPI measures costs for goods at the factory gate. It was down from a growth of 2.7 percent recorded in November, according to the NBS.

The five sectors - oil and natural gas mining, ferrous metal smelting and rolling processing, oil processing industry, non-ferrous metal smelting and rolling processing, coal mining - contributed to the shrinking rise of PPI by about 1.71 percentage points, which are the main factors on the index.

In 2018, the sectors such as oil and gas mining, coal mining and processing and non-mental mineral product industry saw a subdued increase of PPI, up 4.5 percent, 5.7 percent and 5.3 percent respectively, while ferrous metal smelting and rolling processing industry declined by 2.7 percent.