5月消费者物价指数增长1.2%
China's consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, grew 1.2 percent year on year in May, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Tuesday.
国家统计局周二宣称，五月份消费者物价指数（通货膨胀的一项主要衡量标准）年同比增长1.2%。
The reading fell from 1.5 percent posted in April.
On a monthly basis, consumer prices in May slipped 0.2 percent, unchanged from the 0.2-percent drop recorded in April.
Falling prices of vegetables, fruits and eggs due to seasonal factors were the main cause of the CPI decline last month, NBS statistician Yu Qiumei said.
Consumer inflation last month suggests "significant deflation pressures", with an urgent need for more policy easing, said Qu Hongbin, chief economist for China at HSBC.
Falling price levels may be a bonus for consumers in the short term, but factories are likely to postpone their investment and people reduce spending on the prospect of continued price drops.
A combination of muted inflation and slowing economy has troubled the world's second largest economy as it tries to re-tool its economy for quality growth.
China's gross domestic product (GDP) grew 7.4 percent in 2014, the weakest annual expansion in 24 years. GDP growth in the first quarter of the year eased to 7 percent.