BEIJING - China's consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, rose 1.5 percent year on year in May, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Friday.

The expansion in May quickened from April's 1.2 percent, March's 0.9 percent and February's 0.8 percent. On a monthly basis, however, the CPI declined 0.1 percent, according to the NBS.

NBS attributed the pick-up in CPI to higher non-food prices, which grew 2.3 percent year on year in May.

Food prices, however, dropped 1.6 percent. Livestock meat and vegetable prices fell 7.8 percent and 6.3 percent from a year earlier respectively.

China's producer price index (PPI), which measures costs for goods at the factory gate, rose 5.5 percent year on year in May, official data showed Friday.

The pace further eased from the 6.4 percent registered in April, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.