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(fèi)者物價(jià)指數(shù)（CPI）是判斷一個(gè)國家是否出現(xiàn)通貨膨脹的重要衡量標(biāo)準(zhǔn)。在過去的五年中，CPI成為中國人最常談?wù)摰脑掝}之一。

2010年食品價(jià)格瘋長，為中國經(jīng)濟(jì)的高速增長蒙上了一層陰影，同時(shí)引發(fā)了“豆你玩”和“蒜你狠”等一大批網(wǎng)絡(luò)熱詞的流行。

而在2011年，持續(xù)通脹引起了更多人的擔(dān)憂。2011年1-11月，中國的CPI累計(jì)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(shè)定的2011年CPI預(yù)期調(diào)控目標(biāo)——4%。

中國社會(huì)科學(xué)院發(fā)布的《經(jīng)濟(jì)藍(lán)皮書》顯示，在2012年，中央仍然把治理通脹作為宏觀調(diào)控的首要任務(wù)，預(yù)計(jì)2012的CPI漲幅將回落至4.6%。