China’s consumer price index grew 1.8 percent year-on-year in July, down from a 1.9-percent annual hike in June, said the National Bureau of Statistics of China on Tuesday.

It was the third consecutive monthly decline since April, when inflation hit 2.3 percent, the highest rate since July 2014, Chinese state-run news agency Xinhua reported.

Yu Qiumei, a senior statistician at the bureau, was quoted as saying the moderating inflation rate in July was mostly due to a month-on-month slowing in the year-on-year growth of food prices. For example, the price of pork rose 16.1 percent year-on-year in July, down from the 30.1-percent annual rise in June.

China’s producer price index, a gauge for costs of goods at wholesale level, contracted 1.7 percent year-on-year in July, the bureau also noted.