A supermarket in Huaibei, Anhui province on Feb 14. Xie Zhengyi / For China Daily

BEIJING - China's consumer price index (CPI) is expected to grow by about 1.4 percent in February from a year earlier, the Bank of Communications said on Monday.

The official CPI in February, a main gauge of inflation, is due to be released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on March 9.

A drop in vegetable, egg and aquatic product prices may drag down the February CPI, as food prices account for nearly one-third of the prices used, said Tang Jianwei, the bank's senior economist, in a report.

The growth of food prices in February are expected to decrease 1.8 percentage points from last month, said Tang.

Annual CPI growth will be around 2.5 percent, well below the official target of around 3 percent, according to the report.

China's CPI rose 2.5 percent year on year in January, up from the 2.1-percent rise in December, NBS data showed.