China's consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, rose 4.9 percent year on year in February 2011, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced Friday.

The increase was the same as January's.

China's January inflation figure remained stubbornly high at 4.9 percent despite a series of measures taken to curb price rises. The growth accelerated from 4.6 percent in December but was lower than the 28-month high of 5.1 percent in November.

NBS spokesman Sheng Laiyun said food prices, which account for nearly a third of the basket of goods in the nation's CPI calculation, surged 11 percent year on year in February. Non-food prices rose 2.3 percent from a year earlier.

China has adjusted the weight of items in its CPI calculation from the start of the year -- with the food weighting pushed down 2.21 percentage points and property-related weighting up 4.22 percentage points.

Consumer prices rose 4.8 percent in urban areas and 5.5 percent in the rural region, compared with a year earlier, said Sheng.

The February CPI was higher than market forecasts of a 4.8 percent and above the government's target of 4 percent for this year.

Sheng attributed the increase to price hikes during the Spring Festival holiday and seasonal factors.

He said the upward trend may continue as the quantitative easing by some countries resulted in high commodity prices. Meanwhile, rising costs of domestic labor and raw materials could hardly be reversed in the short run.

But the government is confident of curbing inflation as abundant grain reserves, the oversupply of industrial products and the country's prudent monetary policy will help, he added.

China's producer price index (PPI), a major measure of inflation at the wholesale level, rose 7.2 percent in February from a year earlier and 0.8 percent month on month.

On Thursday, the General Administration of Customs said the country recorded a trade deficit of 7.3 billion U.S. dollars in February as the Spring Festival, or the Lunar New Year holiday season dented exports.

That was China's second monthly trade deficit in a year, after the country announced a deficit of 7.24 billion U.S. dollars in March 2010, which was, at that time, the first time in six years.

Market observers said the sudden deficit was linked to a rising yuan, instabilities in external markets, and rising labor costs.