China’s consumer price index grew 1.9 percent year-on-year in June, the National Bureau of Statistics of China announced over the weekend.

The inflation level slowed down from a 2-percent annual hike in May and a 2.3-percent annual growth in April, Chinese state-run news agency Xinhua reported.

The report quoted Yu Qiumei, a senior statistician at the bureau, saying consumer prices had risen only modestly largely because food price increases had eased.

China’s inflation was up 2.1 percent from the previous year in the first half of this year, below the annual official target of a 3-percent growth for 2016, Xinhua reported.

The producer price index, a gauge for costs of goods at wholesale level, contracted 2.6 percent year-on-year in June, the bureau added.