BEIJING, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- China's consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, rose 2.2 percent year on year in November, down from 2.5 percent in October, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Sunday.

Food prices climbed 2.5 percent year on year, contributing to a 0.49-percentage-point increase of the overall CPI growth, the bureau said.

The price of pork continued to slump in November, down 1.1 percent year on year, dragging down CPI growth by 0.03 percentage points.

Prices for health care gained 2.6 percent year on year, and education, culture and entertainment rose 2.5 percent, while prices for housing, and transport and communication rose 2.4 percent and 1.6 percent, respectively, the NBS said.

Non-food prices saw a 2.1-percent gain year on year in November, slowing from 2.4 percent last month.

On a monthly basis, the CPI dipped 0.3 percent from October.

In the Jan.-Nov. period, the CPI gained 2.1 percent from the previous year, well below the government's target ceiling of 3 percent for 2018, data from the NBS showed.

Sunday's data also showed producer price index (PPI), which measures costs for goods at the factory gate, rose 2.7 percent year on year in November, with the growth declining for five consecutive months.