(Yicai Global) Jan. 10 -- China's Consumer Price Index rose by 1.8 percent annually in December, driven by a fast increase in the prices of non-food items, the National Bureau of Statistics said in a press briefing today.

Non-food prices increased by 2.3 percent in 2017, up 0.9 percent points on the year before, with industrial consumer prices rising 1.7 percent, and service consumer prices up 3.0 percent, said Sheng Guoqing, a senior statistician at the bureau.

The country's CPI rose by 1.6 percent for the full-year 2017, in line with expectations.

The median value of the CPI's annual growth in December was 1.87 percent, higher than that of the whole year (1.58 percent), Yicai Chief Economist Confidence Index shows.

Food prices fell 1.4 percent last year, marking the first drop since 2003, mainly driven by plummeting pork and vegetable prices.

China's Producer Price Index (PPI) rose 4.9 percent annually in December 2017 and 0.8 percent compared to the month before.

PPI saw an upturn of 6.3 percent annually during the whole of last year, ending five years of consecutive decline. The price of means of production rose 8.3 percent, which affected PPI growth by 6.13 percentage points, added Shen.