China's inflation eased to a 23-month low, providing ample room for the government to boost economy.

The consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, slowed to 3 percent in May from a year ago, said the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on June 9. It weakened from 3.4 percent in April and 3.6 percent in March.

Compared with the previous month, the CPI edged down 0.3 percent, which was mainly attributable to food price decreases.

Food prices, which account for nearly one third of the weighting in the calculation of China's CPI, saw a 6.4-percent year-on-year increase in May.

The producer price index (PPI), a gauge of inflation at the wholesale level, fell 1.4 percent in May from a year earlier.

Liu Yuanchun, Vice Dean of the School of Economics at Renmin University of China, attributed the lower-than-expected CPI growth to the waning effects of imported inflation and lackluster domestic demand.

Moreover, he expected the economy to rebound after hitting the lowest point in the year in the second quarter. Domestic demand will then pick up, which could stop consumer prices from falling, but declining global commodity prices will continue to weigh on domestic prices, he said.