Shoppers pick fruit at a supermarket in Beijing, May 12, 2024. [Photo/VCG]

China's consumer prices increased mildly in May, while factory-gate prices saw a slowdown in annual declines for a second month, official data showed on Wednesday.

The country's consumer price index, a main gauge of inflation, rose by 0.3 percent year-on-year in May, flat with the rise in April, the National Bureau of Statistics said. 

Within the CPI, food prices dropped 2 percent year-on-year in May after a 2.7 percent annual contraction in April. 

The prices of eggs, fresh fruits and cooking oil declined 8.5 percent, 6.7 percent, and 5.1 percent, respectively, in May, narrowing from the price drop a month earlier. Pork, a staple in Chinese cuisine, saw prices go up by 4.6 percent in May after a 1.4 percent rise in April. 

Meanwhile, non-food prices posted a 0.8 percent rise compared with a year earlier in May after a 0.9 percent increase in April. The growth in energy narrowed from 3.6 percent in April to 3.4 percent in May.

On a month-on-month basis, the CPI dropped by 0.1 percent in May versus a 0.1 percent rise in April. 

The growth in core CPI, which excludes volatile food and energy prices and is deemed a better gauge of the supply-demand relationship in the economy, rose by 0.6 percent year-on-year in May after a 0.7 percent rise in April.

China's producer price index, which gauges factory-gate prices, dropped by 1.4 percent from a year ago in May, narrowing from a 2.5 percent fall in April, the NBS said.

On a month-on-month basis, the PPI rose 0.2 percent in May after a 0.2 percent drop in April, according to the NBS.