The consumer price index (CPI), a key gauge of inflation, increased 1.8 percent year on year in July, the slowest pace since February 2010, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on August 9.

The rate was 0.4 percentage points lower than in June.

The easing inflation is explained as a result of the base effect. The CPI growth rate hit a 37-month high of 6.5 percent in July last year.

Food prices, which account for nearly one third of the weighing in the calculation of the CPI, edged up 2.4 percent in July from a year ago, down from an increase of 3.8 percent in June.

Food prices were mainly driven by an 8-percent hike of vegetable prices, as rain and flooding affected vegetable production in many places in a traditionally peak season of supply.