China's consumer price index (CPI), a major gauge of inflation, increased by 3.1 percent year on year in May, figures from the National Bureau of Statistics show.
The figure dropped 0.1 percent on a month-on-month basis.
Factory price of industrial goods increased by 7.1 percent in May from the same period last year, with the factory price of producer goods increasing by 8.8 percent and the price of raw materials and fuel rising 12.2 percent.
In addition, the total volume of retail sales of consumer goods in May grew by 18.7 percent.
Figures also show that from January to May, property investments increased by 38.2 percent, and urban fixed asset investments rose by 25.9 percent, a 0.2 percent drop from the figure for the January to April period.
Industrial added value rose 16.5 percent last month compared with the same period last year, up 7.6 percentage points from the growth rate of May 2009.