BEIJING-- Chinese consumer confidence picked up slightly in August as people spent more on non-essentials during the summer holiday amid easing inflationary worries, according to an index released on Friday.

The Bankcard Consumer Confidence Index (BCCI), compiled by the Xinhua News Agency and China UnionPay, a national bank card association, increased by 0.1 point month-on-month to reach 86.21 points in August.

On a year-on-year basis, however, the BCCI index was still down 0.15 points, according to the report.

The report said the month-on-month improvement came from increased spending by cardholders on hotels and catering services, which accounted for 6.66 percent and 9.87 percent, respectively, of China's total non-essential consumption in August.

The Consumer Price Index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, went up 6.2 percent year-on-year in August, down from July's 37-month high of 6.5 percent, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Friday.

August's retail sales grew 17 percent to 1.47 trillion yuan (about $230 billion) year-on-year, according to the NBS.