BEIJING, Oct. 20 (Xinhuanet) -- China's consumer price index (CPI) rose by 2.0 percent year-on-year in the first three quarters of this year, a decline of 2.1 percentage points compared with a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Thursday.

    Prices maintained a moderately upward trend with 1.7 percent rise in cities and 2.5 percent rise in rural areas, said Zheng Jingping, spokesman for the NBS, at a press conference.

    In terms of commodity categories, slowed increase in food prices, particularly in grain price was the main reason for the decline in the rise of CPI, said Zheng.

    In the period, food prices rose 3.3 percent, or 7.6 percentage points slower than that of a year earlier. Grain prices rose 1.9 percent while that of housing climbed 5.6 percent and prices for recreation, education, culture goods and services rose 2.6 percent.

    Retail sales prices rose 0.8 percent year-on-year in the first three quarters, said Zheng.

    Producer's prices of manufactured goods increased 5.4 percent and purchasing prices of raw material, fuel and power were up 9.2 percent. Enditem