BEIJING, July 9 -- Growth in China's consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, edged up to 1.4 percent in June, slightly above market forecasts of 1.3 percent and 1.2-percent rise in May.

On a monthly basis, consumer prices in June remained unchanged, compared with a dip of 0.2 percent posted in May, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Thursday.

NBS statistician Yu Qiumei attributed the pick-up to a lower comparative base from June last year and higher prices of food, including vegetables and pork.

For the first half of the year, CPI edged up 1.3 percent year on year.

Producer price index, which measures wholesale inflation, slid 4.8 percent year on year in June, the 40th straight month of declines.

The Chinese government aims to keep its consumer inflation at around 3 percent for 2015.