BEIJING -- China's Consumer Price Index, a key gauge of inflation, grew to 1.8 percent year on year in July, the slowest pace since February 2010, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced Thursday.

The rate was 0.4 percentage points lower than the figure in June.

The easing inflation is explained as a result of the base effect. The CPI growth rate hit a 37-month high of 6.5 percent in July last year before gradually retreating as China's economy slowed for eight quarters in a row.

Food prices, which account for nearly one-third of the weighting in the calculation of China's CPI, edged up 2.4 percent in July from a year ago, down from a growth of 3.8 percent in June.

Food prices were mainly driven by an eight percent hike of vegetable prices, as rain and flooding affected vegetable production in many places in a traditionally peak season of supply.