BEIJING, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- China's consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, rose 1.7 percent year on year in January, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Friday.

The increase was down from 1.9 percent for December.

Food prices climbed 1.9 percent year on year last month, down 0.6 percentage points from December, according to the NBS.

Non-food prices gained 1.7 percent, the same growth as that in December.

The CPI in urban areas increased 1.8 percent, while that in the countryside ticked up by 1.7 percent.

On a month-on-month basis, the CPI went up 0.5 percent in January, the NBS said.

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