BEIJING, Feb. 13 (UPI) -- China's inflation rate for January was 2.5 percent year-on-year, the same as in the previous month, despite higher food prices, official data showed Friday.
The National Bureau of Statistics, which released the consumer price index data, said food prices rose 3.7 percent in January year-on-year. Food prices account for about a third of the CPI, China's main gauge of inflation. Prices of non-food items rose 1.9 percent in January.
The January data also showed inflation rose 2.6 percent in cities, and 2.2 percent in rural areas, Xinhua News Agency reported.
For all of 2013, the CPI rose 2.6 percent from 2012, but was far below the government's 2013 target of 3.5 percent.
"Inflation is not going to be an issue in China this year," ING economist Tim Condon told the BBC.
With inflation remaining under control, the country's policymakers should have more flexibility to implement long-awaited financial reforms even as they try to keep growth going.
China's economy, the world's second-largest after the United States, grew 7.7 percent in 2013 from the previous year, unchanged from the year-on-year growth in 2012. However, the last year's fourth-quarter growth slowed to 7.7 percent from 7.8 percent in the third quarter.
Economic growth is expected to slow to 7.4 percent this year.
