The Chinese corporate goods price (CGP) index, also called the wholesale price index, rose 1.1 percent month-on-month in January, the People's Bank of China (PBOC) said on Tuesday.

The figure indicated growing inflation pressure.

According to the central bank, the CGP index rose 8.4 percent year-on-year.

The CGP index, previously called the wholesale price index, reflects the price change of products traded among corporations and traces overall price fluctuations together with the consumer price index (CPI).

According to the PBOC, agricultural product prices rose 2.2 percent month-on-month, and 12.8 percent year-on-year in January. Food prices rose 2.3 percent month-on-month and 14.3 percent year-on-year.

The price of pork, beef and mutton rose 4 percent, 7 percent and 5.3 percent, respectively, from the previous month, and 68.2 percent, 50.1 percent and 40.8 percent, respectively, year-on-year. Vegetables increased 7.7 percent month-on-month and 8.5 percent year-on-year.

Gold was up 7.9 percent month-on-month and 28.7 percent year-on-year.

PBOC statistics revealed the price of iron ore was up 2.6 percent month-on-month and 27.3 percent year-on-year. The price of steel products rose 1.6 percent month-on-month and 26.1 percent year-on-year.

"The price rise trend is inevitable as the agricultural products, food, energy and mineral products prices are on the rise globally," Yi Xianrong, a researcher with the financial research center of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), told Xinhua on Tuesday.

Yi held that the task for the government to ease the inflation pressure was arduous, adding if it took various measures the CPI growth rate could be controlled under 6 percent for 2008.

China's CPI touched an 11 year monthly high with a 7.1-percent rise in January. Huge increases in food prices pushed up the CPI by 4.8 percent in 2007, the highest level since 1997.

Yi Gang, PBOC's vice governor, told a seminar in Beijing on Sunday the primary risk for the country's economy was inflation. The government would stick to the tight monetary policy.

The Chinese CGP index is based on 791 types of goods prices and covers wholesale prices in the country's 36 big- and medium-sized cities and more than 200 small cities.