China's consumer price index (CPI), the main gauge of inflation, rose 5.5 percent year-on-year in May, the highest rate in 34 months, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Tuesday.
CPI rose 5.2 percent year-on-year in the first five months of the year, NBS spokesman Sheng Laiyun said.
Food prices, which account for nearly a third of the basket of goods in the nation's CPI calculation, surged 11.7 percent in May from a year earlier.
The pace of increase accelerated from April's 11.5-percent rise.
Growth in non-food prices also accelerated, rising by 2.9 percent in May from a year earlier, Sheng said.
April's non-food prices increased 2.7 percent year-on-year.
Compared with April, food prices slid 0.3 percent in May, of which vegetable prices plunged 9.3 percent month-on-month.
The producer price index (PPI), a main gauge of inflation at the wholesale level, rose 6.8 percent in May from a year ago, unchanged from April's annual growth.
China's producer price index (PPI), a major measure of inflation at the wholesale level, rose 6.8 percent in May year-on-year, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Tuesday.