WITH reduction of the weight of food, China's consumer prices reported a less-than-expected rise of 4.9 percent in January, but analysts say there remains huge inflationary pressure which will push China to keep a tight monetary policy.

Consumer Price Index, the main gauge of inflation, rose less than the market expectation of 5 percent or more. But it was still higher than December's 4.6 percent due to rising costs caused by bad weather and pre-Spring Festival shopping spree.

The National Bureau of Statistics said today that Producer Price Index, the factory-gate measure of inflation, expanded 6.6 percent year-on-year in January, up from December's increase of 5.9 percent.

The gap between forecasts and official inflation figures was partly due to a modification in the weight of the index.

The bureau carried out a major adjustment starting from January to make the index better reflecting price changes.

The weight of food prices, which used to count for one-third of the basket, was cut by 2.21 percentage points in the system while living costs was raised by 4.22 percentage points along with other smaller cuts in tobacco and liquor, apparel and household appliances.