Consumers purchase vegetable in a supermarket in Lianyungang, Jiangsu Province. [CFP]

China's consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, rose 4.2 percent in November on a year-on-year basis, further?easing from 5.5 percent in October, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS)?annoucned on Friday.

The inflation rate in November was a 13-month low since October last year, according to the NBS data.

On a monthly basis, the cost of living dipped 0.2 percent in November,said the NBS in a statement at its website.

Taking the first 11 months together, the CPI rose 5.5 percent year-on-year in January-November, well above the government's full-year inflation control target of 4 percent.

Food prices, which account for nearly one third of the basket of goods in the nation's CPI calculation, went up 8.8 percent in November from a year earlier but dipped 0.8 percent month-on-month, according to the NBS.

Prior to the NBS announcement, many economists expected the November CPI to rise by between 4.2 percent to 4.4 percent year-on-year.

China's CPI hit a 37-month high of 6.5 percent in July this year.

China's Producer Price Index (PPI), a major measure of inflation at the wholesale level, rose 2.7 percent in November year-on-year, indicating subsiding inflationary pressure for December.