CPI likely to increase moderately

China's main gauge of inflation, the consumer price index, is likely to show no more than a moderate increase this year. That's according to an official with the National Bureau of Statistics.

NBS Head of the Department of Urban Social and Economic Survey, Wei Guixiang, says despite a general uptrend in recent months, abundant supplies will act as a check on any possible surge in the consumer price index. January saw the index post year-on-year growth of 1.5 percent. This was pushed up mainly by an increase in the price of food, exacerbated by severe winter weather.