BEIJING - China's consumer price index (CPI), the main gauge of inflation, rose 5.4 percent year-on-year in the first half of this year, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Wednesday.

The growth accelerated from the 5-percent rise for the first quarter of this year.

Food prices, which account for nearly one-third of the basket of goods in the CPI calculation, rose 11.8 percent from a year earlier in the first six months, according to the NBS. The figure was higher than the 11-percent increase in the first quarter.

The Chinese government has been grappling with stubbornly high inflation, which accelerated to a three-year record high of 6.4 percent year-on-year in June. The half-year inflation figure exceeded the government's 4 percent target ceiling for this year.

The central bank has so far raised benchmark interest rates three times this year including a latest rate hike of 25 basis points announced on July 6. It also hiked the reserve requirement ratio six times this year, ordering banks to keep a record high of 21.5 percent of their deposits in reserve to rein in excess lending.

NBS spokesman Sheng Laiyun said the government's prudent monetary policies are "showing positive effects in tightening liquidity," and have helped to ease price pressures.

He said the country is still facing relatively strong inflationary pressures and should stick to the efforts to control prices.

The government will also increase subsidies to low-wage earners while stabilizing prices as higher prices have put huge pressures on this group, he added.

Premier Wen Jiabao reiterated in a statement released Tuesday that stabilizing prices remains the top priority for the government's macro-regulatory policies, adding a prudent monetary policy should be kept in place.

China's inflation may grow 4.8 percent year-on-year in 2011, the China Securities Journal reported on Monday, citing Li Daokui, a member of the monetary policy committee of the central bank, as saying.

The NBS data also showed China's Producer Price Index (PPI), the main measure of inflation at the wholesale level, rose 7.0 percent year-on-year in the first half of this year, compared with 7.1-percent for the first quarter.