The lower-than-expected rise in the consumer price index (CPI) is no cause for optimism. Chinese policymakers should continue their efforts to fight inflation.

To the surprise of most economists who believed that inflation might climb to a new high, consumer prices, despite rising 0.3 percentage points in January compared with December, stayed 0.2 percentage points lower than the 28-month high of November. Though they were still 4.9 percent higher than the same month a year ago.

Some economists suspect that the move by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) to give diminished weight to food prices might have helped keep the rise lower than the market's expectations of more than 5 percent.