China’s consumer price index (CPI), the main gauge of inflation, rose 4.5 percent in January year-on-year driven by increases in food prices, the National Bureau of Statistics announced earlier today.

That compared with a 4.1 percent rise in December. Full-year CPI was up 5.4 percent in 2011, measured year on year, well above the government’s target of 4 percent.

The rate of year-on-year increase in food prices picked up to 10.5 percent in January compared with an increase of 9.1 percent in December, contributing 3.29 percentage points to the overall growth in the indicator.

The producer price index (PPI), another measure of inflation at the wholesale level, rose 0.7 percent in January year-on-year, down from the 1.7 percent increase in December and an abrupt decline of 5.0 percent in November, according to the NBS.