People visit the Old North Market during the Lunar New Year holiday in Shenyang, northeast China's Liaoning Province, Feb. 14, 2021. (Xinhua/Yang Qing)

BEIJING, March 10 (Xinhua) -- China's consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, declined 0.2 percent year on year in February due to a higher comparison base last year, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed Wednesday.

Food prices went down 0.2 percent year on year, dragging down the consumer inflation by 0.05 percentage points, according to the data.

The decline was largely driven by the carryover effect as the COVID-19 outbreak boosted prices of consumer goods in February last year and resulted in a higher base.

The carryover effect sent the CPI inflation down by 1.8 percentage points, while new price increases pulled the growth up by 1.6 percentage points, the NBS data showed.

On a monthly basis, the CPI gained 0.6 percent, with food prices up 1.6 percent due to rising demand and increasing logistics cost during the Spring Festival, which fell in February this year, noted Dong Lijuan, a senior statistician with the NBS.

Wednesday's data also showed China's producer prices, which measures costs for goods at the factory gate, rose 1.7 percent year on year in February.