China's inflation eased slightly in April as warming weather led to a drop in food prices, building up confidence that the government's annual targets set for the area could be met.

China's consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, rose 3.4 percent year on year in April, according to new data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Friday.

The growth eased slightly from the 3.6-percent rate registered in March. It hit a 20-month low of 3.2 percent in February.

The Chinese government is aiming to keep CPI increases to around 4 percent.

Food prices, which account for nearly one-third of the weighting in the calculation of China's CPI, increased 7 percent last month from one year earlier. The growth compared to the 7.5-percent rate registered in March.

On a monthly basis, food prices dropped 0.9 percent from March, the NBS said.

Statistics from the Ministry of Commerce showed that despite a small rebound at the end of April, farm produce prices continued falling in the month, with prices of vegetables and pork significantly down.

Meanwhile, China's Producer Price Index (PPI), a main gauge of inflation at the wholesale level, fell 0.7 percent in April from a year earlier.

The data marked another month of decline year on year after China's PPI saw a drop in March for the first time since December 2009, NBS data showed.

The country's CPI climbed 3.8 percent in the first quarter of 2012 compared with the previous year. On a monthly basis, the CPI edged down 0.1 percent in April, the NBS added.

91酷點英語快訊：GJ統(tǒng)計局5月11日公布的數(shù)據(jù)顯示，4月份，全國居民消費價格總水平（CPI）同比上漲3.4%。食品價格上漲7.0%，非食品價格上漲1.7%；消費品價格上漲4.1%，服務項目價格上漲1.7%。1-4月份平均，全國居民消費價格總水平比去年同期上漲3.7%。全國居民消費價格總水平環(huán)比下降0.1%。食品價格下降0.9%，非食品價格上漲0.3%。

《4月CPI數(shù)據(jù)今日發(fā)布：同比上漲3.4%》永久閱讀地址: http://www.jiazhineng.cn/yingyu/303/