The consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of the country's inflation, has become one of the most mentioned topics among Chinese people in the past five years.

Soaring food prices in 2010 cast a shadow over the country's banner growth, triggering the prevalence of a series of Internet buzzwords such as "Kidding Mungbean" and "Brutal Garlic."

Continued inflation in 2011 caused more worries. Even with a sharp fall last November, the country's CPI rose 5.5 percent year-on-year during the January-November period, well above the government's full-year inflation control target of 4 percent.

Inflation control remains one of the most important tasks in 2012 for the central government. The CPI increase is predicted to fall to 4.6 percent in 2012, according to the annual economic blue book released by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS).

消費者物價指數（CPI）是判斷一個國家是否出現通貨膨脹的重要衡量標準。在過去的五年中，CPI成為中國人最常談論的話題之一。

2010年食品價格瘋長，為中國經濟的高速增長蒙上了一層陰影，同時引發了“豆你玩”和“蒜你狠”等一大批網絡熱詞的流行。

而在2011年，持續通脹引起了更多人的擔憂。2011年1-11月，中國的CPI累計同比上漲5.5%。盡管在11月份CPI漲幅明顯回落，但仍然超出了政府設定的2011年CPI預期調控目標——4%。

中國社會科學院發布的《經濟藍皮書》顯示，在2012年，中央仍然把治理通脹作為宏觀調控的首要任務，預計2012的CPI漲幅將回落至4.6%。