Consumer inflation rises by 1.9% in October: NBS

China's consumer inflation rate rose by 1.9 percent in October from a year earlier, beating market expectations, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Thursday.

It was higher than the rate in September, when CPI rose by 1.6 percent.

In the first 10 months, CPI growth stood at 1.5 percent compared with a year ago, well below the growth control target of 3 percent the country set early this year.

Non-food price growth was the main contributor to CPI rise in October, said Sheng Guoqing, a senior statistician in the NBS, in a statement. Non-food prices, mainly health-related costs, rents, and education and recreational costs, rose by 3.2 percent year-on-year while food prices dropped slightly.

Producer prices, measured by PPI, rose 6.9 percent year-on-year, unchanged from September.

Prices of paper, chemical raw materials and chemical goods and non-metallic minerals contributed the most to PPI growth in October, said Sheng of NBS. Those of metals, coal mining and oil processing costs remained major factor behind the PPI growth, but their growth rates dropped in October compared with previous months.

The economy registered better-than-expected growth of 6.9 percent in the first three quarters. But property and construction activity, two of the world's second-largest economy's main growth drivers, may start to bite into overall growth in the coming months as the country has tightened control of property sales to dampen the market to prevent financial risks from worsening.