China's consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, slowed to 3.0 percent year-on-year in May, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Saturday.

It marked a 17-month-low, easing from April's 3.4 percent and 3.6 percent in March.

Compared with the previous monthly, it edged down 0.3 percent in May, the NBS said.

The CPI climbed 3.5 percent in the first five months compared with the same period of last year year.

Food prices, which account for nearly one-third of the weighting in the calculation of China's CPI, increased 6.4 percent last month from one year earlier, down from 7 percent in April.