The consumer price index, a key measure of inflation, rose 0.7 percent year-on-year in November, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

The reading was in line with a Bloomberg forecast and higher than the 0.2 percent increase recorded in October.

"The expansion ... was mainly driven by a shift from declines to increases in food prices," NBS statistician Dong Lijuan said in a statement interpreting the data.

Beijing has been battling sluggish domestic spending for several years, with a prolonged crisis in the property sector and lingering effects from the Covid pandemic weighing on consumer sentiment.

In a sign of persisting woes, the producer price index (PPI), which measures the prices of goods before they enter wholesale or distribution, fell by 2.2 percent year-on-year in November, NBS data showed.

The drop in factory gate prices was slightly faster than the 2.0 percent decline forecast by Bloomberg and the 2.1 percent decrease recorded in October.

China's monthly PPI has been in negative territory for more than three years, reflecting weak demand and a global oversupply of manufactured goods from the country.