China's consumer price index (CPI) is expected to grow by more than 3.0 percent in 2007, or possibly higher, said a senior official from the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).

China's CPI rose 6.5 percent year-on-year in August, bringing inflation in the country to its highest single-month level since December 1996.

The rapid rate of growth in inflation has been traced to sharp increases in grain prices, in line with the trend in international grain and crude oil prices, growing production costs, and a shortage of live pigs supply as controlled by some industry associations, said Li Lei, director of the NDRC's price supervision department.

Such pressures on cost may not be relieved in the short term, "so the possibility for prices to grow much higher was not ruled out," Li said in a statement published on the NDRC's website.

China continues to face upward pressure on its market prices and they will remain at "relatively high" levels for some time, he said.

Earlier, the central bank and the NDRC's senior research official Wang Xiaoguang predicted that China's CPI this year will grow more than 4 .0 percent.