BEIJING, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) -- China's consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, rose 3.8 percent year on year in October, the National Bureau of Statistics said Saturday.

The growth rate, which was up from 3 percent in September, was the highest so far this year.

Food prices grew 15.5 percent year on year last month, up from 11.2 percent in September, while non-food prices gained 0.9 percent, 0.1 percentage points lower than that of September.

Pork prices rose 101.3 percent year on year last month, while vegetable prices saw a 10.2-percent drop from a year ago.

The CPI in urban and rural areas posted a year-on-year growth of 3.5 percent and 4.6 percent, respectively.

In the first 10 months of the year, consumer prices on average rose 2.6 percent from a year earlier, the bureau said.