BEIJING, March 9 -- China's consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, was down 0.7 percent year on year in February, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Sunday.

The prices in urban areas and rural areas both decreased by 0.7 percent from one year earlier, the NBS data showed.

In breakdown, food prices declined 3.3 percent year on year, non-food prices edged down 0.1 percent year on year, consumer goods prices decreased 0.9 percent year on year and service prices slipped 0.4 percent year on year last month.

From January to February, on average, the national consumer price decreased 0.1 percent over the same period last year.

On a monthly basis, the CPI dropped 0.2 percent in February, the NBS data showed.