China's consumer price index (CPI), a key gauge of inflation, rose 0.9% year-on-year in September, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on October 14.

The year-on-year increase was 0.1 percentage point larger than the previous month, while the month-on-month reading came in at 0.2%, down 0.2 percentage points from August, Xinhua reported.

Core CPI, which strips out volatile food and energy prices, climbed 1.0% from a year earlier, matching the pace seen in the prior month, according to the bureau.

Dong Lijuan, chief statistician at the bureau's urban survey department, said gasoline prices jumped 16.6% year-on-year in September, with the increase widening by 7.3 percentage points from a month earlier and contributing roughly 0.47 percentage points to the headline CPI.

That pushed energy prices up 7.3% year-on-year, accelerating from a 4.1% gain in August, she said.

Excluding energy, prices of industrial consumer goods rose 1.6% from a year earlier, 0.2 percentage points slower than the previous month, adding about 0.39 percentage points to the annual CPI reading.

Service prices increased 0.8% year-on-year in September, unchanged from August, contributing roughly 0.40 percentage points to the year-on-year CPI growth.

Food prices fell 1.7% from a year earlier, steeper than the 0.3 percentage point drop a month earlier, dragging the annual CPI down by about 0.29 percentage points.

On a month-on-month basis, service prices shifted from a 0.1% rise in August to a 0.2% decline in September, turning from adding about 0.04 percentage points to the monthly CPI to subtracting roughly 0.08 percentage points, Dong said.

Prices of industrial consumer goods rose 0.7% month-on-month, 0.1 percentage points slower than in August, lifting the monthly CPI by about 0.22 percentage points.

Food prices gained 0.4% month-on-month, matching August's pace but 0.8 percentage points below the seasonal average, contributing about 0.06 percentage points to the monthly CPI.

The producer price index (PPI), which measures factory-gate prices, rose 1.2% month-on-month in September, 0.8 percentage points faster than the previous month, and climbed 5.0% year-on-year, with the annual gain widening by 1.2 percentage points from August.