BEIJING — China’s consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, rose 1.9 percent year on year in October, lifted by a rise in non-food prices.

The rate was up from September’s 1.6 percent and was the biggest increase in nine months, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Nov 9.

On a monthly basis, the index was up 0.1 percent, lower than the 0.5-percent in the previous month.

NBS statistician Sheng Guoqing attributed the growth mainly to rising non-food prices, which climbed 2.4 percent year on year.

Health care prices rose 7.2 percent from a year earlier while home rents, education, culture and entertainment also saw rises of more than 2 percent.

Food prices, which account for a significant part of the CPI calculation, dropped 0.4 percent from a year earlier, dragging down the CPI number by 0.08 percentage points, Sheng said.

Prices of pork, a staple meat in China, slumped 10.1 percent.

As demand fell after the National Day Holiday at the beginning of October, the price of eggs declined 5.4 percent month on month. Air ticket prices and travel agency charges also slumped 9.1 percent and 2.7 percent respectively from a month earlier.

For the first ten months of the year, CPI climbed 1.5 percent from a year earlier, lower than the government goal of 3 percent for the whole year.

Nov 9 data also showed that China’s producer price index (PPI), which measures costs of goods at the factory gate, rose 6.9 percent year on year in October, on par with last month.