China's consumer price index (CPI), the main gauge of inflation, rose 4.6 percent year on year in December, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced Thursday.
The CPI was up 3.3 percent in 2010 from the previous year, the NBS said.
The monthly figure was slightly lower than November's 5.1 percent, a 28-month high, but slightly higher than October's 4.4-percent growth.
The prices of food, which accounts for a third of the basket of goods in China's CPI calculation, surged 7.2 percent year on year in 2010.
The rise of food prices in December was down from 11.7 percent in November, 10.1 percent in October, 8 percent in September and 7.5 percent in August.
