BEIJING -- China's consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, rose 6.1 percent in September year-on-year, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Friday.

On a monthly basis, consumer prices rose 0.5 percent in September, said the NBS in a statement at its website.

In the first nine months of this year, China's CPI climbed 5.7 percent from the same period last year, up from 5.4 percent year-on-year in the first half, said the NBS.

Food prices, which account for nearly one third of the basket of goods in the nation's CPI calculation, was up 13.4 percent in September from a year earlier and 1.1 percent month-on-month, according to the NBS.

China's CPI hit a 37-month high of 6.5 percent in July this year, which was far above the Chinese government's full-year target of 4 percent for 2011.

China's September PPI rises 6.5% year-on-year

China's Producer Price Index (PPI), a major measure of inflation at the wholesale level, rose 6.5 percent in September year-on-year, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Friday.

September's PPI growth was lower than August's 7.3 percent increase, the NBS said in a statement on its website.

Producer purchase prices in September rose 10 percent year-on-year, and grew 0.1 percent from August, according to the NBS.

During the first nine months of this year, the country's PPI climbed seven percent from the same period last year and producer purchase prices rose 10.4 percent.

The producer prices of production materials rose 7.1 percent year-on-year in September, and declined 0.1 percent from August, the statement said.