BEIJING -- China's Consumer Price Index, a main gauge of inflation, grew 2.2 percent in June, down from May's 3.0 percent, the National Bureau of Statistics said Monday.

It eased from May's 3 percent and April's 3.4 percent.

Compared with the previous month, it edged down 0.6 percent, according to the NBS.

In the first six months of 2012, the CPI climbed 3.3 percent 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 3.8 percent last month from one year earlier, down from 6.4 percent in May.