BEIJING - China's consumer inflation is expected to pick up in April due to rising non-food prices and a low base for the same period a year ago, according to a report of the Bank of Communications.

The bank forecast the official consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, will have grown 1.1 percent year-on-year for this month, slightly faster than March's 0.9-percent growth and the 0.8-percent increase in February.

Price hikes in refined oil products have become a significant support for non-food prices, which will likely rose 2.4 percent from a year ago, and a stronger carry-over effect also helped push up the CPI.

But prices of vegetables, eggs, poultry and other major farm produce continued to decrease in the first three weeks of April. Food prices account for nearly one-third of prices used in calculating the CPI.

The official CPI is due to be released by the National Bureau of Statistics on May 10.

The bank predicts rising prices in the middle of the year but dismissed inflationary pressures for the whole 2017 because of subdued consumer demand, and prudent and neutral monetary policy.