BEIJING — China's consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, rose 3 percent year-on-year in September, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Oct 15.

The growth rate was up from 2.8 percent in August, and the highest so far this year.

Food prices grew 11.2 percent year-on-year last month, up from 10 percent in August, while nonfood prices gained 1 percent, 0.1 percentage points lower than that of August.

Pork prices rose 69.3 percent year-on-year last month, while the growth rate narrowed on the month-on-month basis. Vegetable prices saw an 11.8-percent slip from a year ago.

The CPI in urban and rural areas registered a year-on-year growth of 2.8 percent and 3.6 percent, respectively.

China aims to keep consumer inflation at around 3 percent in 2019, according to a government work report.

The data on Oct 15 also showed that China's producer price index, which measures costs for goods at the factory gate, fell 1.2 percent year-on-year in September.