Food prices push up CPI

China's consumer price index rose 5.4 percent year-on-year in the first half of this year, the National Bureau of Statistics said yesterday.

The growth accelerated from the first quarter's 5 percent.

Food prices, which account for nearly a third of the basket of goods in the CPI calculation, rose 11.8 percent from a year earlier in the first six months, higher than the first quarter's 11 percent increase.

The half-year inflation figure exceeded the government's 4 percent target ceiling for this year.