China's consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, rose 1.9 percent year-on-year in December, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said.

China's CPI rose 2.1 percent year-on-year in 2018, up from 1.6 percent for 2017.Food prices rose 2.5 percent year-on-year, contributing 0.48 percentage points to the overall CPI growth, the bureau said.Prices for medical products and services rose 2.5 percent year on year, educational, cultural and entertainment prices rose 2.3 percent while housing-related prices rose 2.2 percent.

China's producer price index (PPI), which measures costs for goods at the factory gate, rose 3.5 percent year-on-year in 2018, the NBS said.

It was down from the growth of 6.3 percent recorded in 2017, according to the bureau.