BEIJING — China’s consumer inflation continued to slow in 2015, as the consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, increased 1.4 percent year-on-year in the last year.

The figure was below the 2 percent increase in 2014 and 2.6 percent in 2013, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said in a statement on Jan 9.

The reading hit a six-year low and was far below the government’s 3-percent target set for the year, data showed.

In 2015, food prices, accounting for one-third of the CPI calculation, rose 2.3 percent and non-food prices edged up 1 percent.

Consumer prices started to pick up moderately in the last quarter of the year as CPI growth recovered to 1.6 percent in December from November’s 1.5 percent and October’s 1.3 percent.

On a monthly basis, December’s CPI edged up 0.5 percent against the previous month.

The NBS attributed the mild recovery mainly to rising food prices as vegetable and fruit prices jumped after rain and snow hindered production. Non-food prices remained flat.

China’s producer price index (PPI), a measure of cost for goods at the factory gate, dropped 5.2 percent year on year in 2015, widening from a 1.9-percent slip registered in 2014.

In December, the PPI fell 5.9 percent from a year ago, unchanged from November, marking the 46th straight month of decline.

The decline was due to price drops in oil and natural gas exploitation, ferrous metal smelting, coal mining and fuel gas supply.

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A worker arranges vegetables at a supermarket in Cangzhou, north China’s Hebei Province, Jan. 7, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua]