BEIJING - China's consumer price index (CPI), a measure of inflation, was up 6.3 percent in July, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Tuesday.

The figure, compared with 7.1 percent in June and 7.7 percent in May, was broadly in line with most forecasts.

Food prices, which account for more than a third of the CPI calculation, soared 14.4 percent in July, 6.0 percentage points lower than the growth in the first half of this year.

The price of meat increased 16.0 percent, with that of pork rising 12.1 percent. Cooking oil price went up 30.8 percent, with vegetables up 8.4 percent, aquatic products up 18.3 percent and grains up 8.6 percent.

In the first seven months of this year, the inflation indicator rose 7.7 percent from the same period last year, or 7.4 percent up for urban areas and 8.3 percent up for the countryside.