China's consumer price index rose 2.5 per cent year-on-year in December mostly due to a hike in food prices, the National Bureau of Statistics said Friday. Food was 4.2 per cent more expensive than in the same month a year earlier, after the coldest winter in China for three decades. "Vegetables price rises every winter, but this year's growth is relatively higher than past years," financial observer Jeffrey Chen told dpa. The coldest winter in China for three decades has pushed up the price of vegetables in particular. Food accounts for close to one-third of the weighting in the consumer price index. Consumer price inflation stood at 2 per cent year-on-year in November, up from 1.7 per cent in October. Chen said inflation was under control, but would probably rise to around 4 per cent by the end of the year, for an average of 3.1 to 3.5 per cent for 2013. The producer price index, which tracks inflation in wholesale prices, fell 1.9 per cent in December, the bureau said, for the 10th month of decrease.
