BEIJING, March 9 (Reuters) - China's consumer inflation quickened to 2.9 percent in February, beating economists' forecasts, official data showed on Friday.

The consumer price index (CPI) had been expected to rise 2.5 percent from a year earlier, picking up from a 1.5 percent gain in January, according to a Reuters poll.

The producer price index (PPI) rose 3.7 percent from a year earlier, cooling to a 15-month low, also easing from the previous month's rise of 4.3 percent, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on its website.

Analysts polled by Reuters had predicted producer inflation would ease to 3.8 percent in February.

China set its consumer inflation goal at "around 3 percent" for 2018, in line with last year, as widely expected, according to the premier's work report released on Monday. (Reporting by Beijing Monitoring Desk; Editing by Kim Coghill)