CHINA'S consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, dropped to 5.5 percent year-on-year in October, the third consecutive monthly slide, the National Bureau of Statistics said today.

On a monthly basis, consumer prices edged up 0.1 percent in October, said the NBS in a statement at its website.

Food prices, which account for nearly one third of the basket of goods in the nation's CPI calculation, was up 11.9 percent in October from a year earlier and down 0.2 percent month-on-month, according to the NBS.

China's CPI hit a 37-month high of 6.5 percent in July this year, which was far above the Chinese government's full-year target of 4 percent for 2011.