CHINA'S consumer price index, one of the main gauges of inflation, rose to its highest level this year boosted by rising food prices.

The CPI gained 3.3 percent in July from a year earlier, 0.4 percentage points higher than in June, the National Bureau of Statistics said today. It has exceeded the 3-percent full-year target ceiling the government set in March.

Food prices, which account for about a third of the weighting in calculating the CPI, climbed 6.8 percent in July, compared with June's increase of 5.7 percent.

The country's CPI gained 2.7 percent year on year in the first seven months of this year, 0.1 percentage points higher than the January-June figure, the NBS said.

The producer price index, a major measure of inflation at the wholesale level, grew 4.8 percent year on year in July, 1.6 percentage points lower than in June, the NBS said.