Soaring food prices were largely blamed for pushing consumer inflation up to 7.1 percent last month, from 6.5 percent in December. January's inflation rate was the highest figure since September 1996, when consumer price inflation hit 7.4 percent.
Inflation in China continues to rise despite higher interest rates and other measures by Beijing to keep the economy from overheating.
The worst winter for decades hit food supplies, sending food costs up 18 percent.
Massive snowfalls wrecked crops and killed millions of livestock.
But analysts cautioned that the severe weather was not the only factor behind rising food costs, and warned that prices could still increase further.
Chinese leaders have been under pressure to control spiralling food costs, the biggest factor behind historical periods of social unrest in a country where according to the World Bank 300 million people live in poverty.
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