BEIJING -- China's consumer price index, a main gauge of inflation, grew 2.1 percent year-on-year in May, down from 2.4 percent in April, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Sunday.

The NBS attributed the slow-down in growth mainly to falls in vegetable prices, which shrank 13.8 percent in May from April.

The rise is below the market forecast of around 2.5 percent, according to Wang Jun, analyst with the China Center for International Economic Exchanges, a government think tank.

In May, food prices, which account for nearly one-third of the weighting in China's CPI, increased 3.2 percent year on year, NBS data showed.

On a monthly basis, the CPI in May edged down 0.6 percent from April, compared to a rise of 0.2 percent in April from March.

The data also showed China's producer price index, which measures wholesale inflation, fell 2.9 percent year on year in May, marking the 15th straight month of decline and the steepest drop in seven months, pointing to continued weak market demand.

China aims to hold this year's consumer inflation at around 3.5 percent.

China's May PPI down 2.9%

China's producer price index, which measures inflation at the wholesale level, fell 2.9 percent year-on-year in May, the National Bureau of Statistics announced on Sunday.

The figure marked a further drop of 0.6 percent from April's, according to data released by the NBS. For the January-May period, the PPI fell 2.1 percent.

The factory price of production materials dropped 3.8 percent, contributing 2.88 percentage points to May's PPI. Excluding the carryover effects from last year, new prices only contributed 0.8 percentage point to the general PPI of May, according to the NBS.

The decline of the PPI last month was in accordance with a three-percent drop of an index tracking the purchase price for industrial producers, according to the NBS.

The purchase price of ferrous metals fell 5.9 percent year on year in May, while that of fuel slumped 5.6 percent. The purchase price of non-ferrous metals and industrial chemicals fell 5 percent and 3.8 percent, respectively, according to the data.

The PPI data came along with a 2.1-percent rise in inflation in May, which eased 0.6 percent from April.