BEIJING - The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) reduced the weighting of food by 2.21 percentage points in the revised consumer price index (CPI) basket, a change that is partially responsible for a month-on-month drop in the headline inflation figure released on Tuesday.

China's CPI, the key gauge of inflation, rose 4.9 percent last month from a year earlier, a lower figure than most economists' estimates.

Sheng Laiyun, the bureau's spokesman, said in October that new weightings for CPI would take effect in January. The revised CPI basket reduces the weighting of food by 2.21 percentage points and increases the weighting of residences by 4.22 points to reflect the country's changing economic landscape, according to the NBS statement.