Consumer prices in China were up 2.3 percent on year in June, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Wednesday.
That was shy of forecasts for 2.4 percent, and it was down from 2.5 percent in May.
Individually, food prices jumped an annual 3.7 percent in June, while non-food prices gained 1.7 percent.
The statistics bureau also noted that producer prices were down 1.1 percent on year versus forecasts for -1.0 percent following the 1.4 percent contraction in May.
"We continue to look for more policy easing to sustain the growth momentum in H2. We expect the government to accelerate fiscal spending and open up more infrastructure sectors to private sector participation," a Barclays report said on Wednesday. The report added that inflation will not be a constraint for policy easing in 2014, and will be contained this year.
It also forecast that the central bank might cut interest rates twice or resort to equivalent measures to lower financing costs.
A Merrill Lynch research report on Wednesday said, however, that China will resist calls for universal measures such as cutting benchmark rates and cutting reserve requirement ratios (RRR) for all banks, instead stepping up targeted measures to reach the annual growth target of around 7.5%.
Since this year, the government has expanded targeted RRR cuts for certain banks which lend to small companies and agriculture.
Late last month, the China Banking Regulatory Commission also announced that it will adjust the loan to deposit ratio to ease credit supply.
