(Yicai Global) Aug. 9 -- The consumer price index (CPI) in China went up 0.1 percent last month compared with June and 1.4 percent annually, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said today.

The CPI has remained stable judging by monthly numbers, said Sheng Guoqing, a senior statistician at NBS' urban data department. The monthly gain is attributable to rising vegetable and egg prices, which were pushed up by persistent hot weather across the country and strong regional rainfalls, and an increase in non-food prices, which led to a climb in the CPI of 0.17 and 0.13 percentage points, respectively. Food prices fell 0.1 percent, translating into a drop in the CPI of about 0.02 percentage points. A decline in seasonal fruit and port prices pushed the index down 0.18 percentage points.

The CPI's annual growth of 1.4 percent was 0.1 percentage points slower than that recorded in the previous month. Falling food prices translated into a decrease of 0.21 percentage points in the CPI, whereas higher non-food prices boosted CPI growth by roughly 1.62 percentage points. Most (approximately one percentage point) of the 1.4-percent gain is attributable to the carry-over effect, and the remaining 0.4 percentage points to price increases in the month.

The national producer price index (PPI) rose 0.2 percent monthly and 5.5 percent annually, the NBS statistics show.

Unlike in June, last month saw a 0.2-percent rise in the PPI, mainly driven by price increases in steel and nonferrous metal products, Sheng said.

The 5.5-percent gain tied the records for the previous two months. Among major economic sectors, coal mining and washing, nonferrous metal smelting and rolling and oil processing businesses saw a slowdown in PPI growth. Ferrous metal smelting and rolling and non-metallic mining sectors registered accelerating PPI growth. The carry-over effect caused most (an estimated 4.6 percentage points) of the 5.5-percent annual PPI growth. Price increases in July led to the remaining 0.9 percentage points.