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BEIJING, Sept. 9-- China's consumer inflation picked up in August, driven by higher food prices, while the factory-gate prices also rose, fueled by rising commodity costs. Consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, accelerated more than expected to a seven-month high of 1.8 percent in August, up from July's 1.4 percent, beating market expectation of 1.6 percent, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) Saturday. For the first eight months of the year, CPI climbed 1.5 percent from one year earlier. The stronger, yet still moderate, inflation remained well below the government's annual inflation regulation target of around 3 percent for 2017. On a monthly basis, CPI was up 0.4 percent last month. NBS chief statistician Sheng Guoqing attributed the faster CPI growth to higher food prices as adverse weather pushed up vegetable prices while falling output led to sharp growth in egg prices. Food prices, the biggest component of the CPI, were up 1.2 percent month on month, NBS said. Vegetable prices rose 8.5 percent from July as scorching summer and widespread heavy rains increased transportation costs. Egg prices climbed 13.5 percent from July while the prices of pork, a staple meat in China, rose 1.3 percent month on month. Year on year, food prices edged down 0.2 percent in August, while non-food prices gained 2.3 percent. | 
